


Read Between the Lies

by thoseindarkness



Series: Deceive the Deceiver [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Espionage, Imprisonment, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Spies & Secret Agents, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-03-26 13:40:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19006921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoseindarkness/pseuds/thoseindarkness
Summary: Ben is a spy who grew up around spies. Rey is street smart scavenger. Both are looking for a fresh start. Their lives intersect in the Alliance, a covert organization whose primary mission is to keep the world safe from the remnants of the Empire, the criminal cartels that prey on the weak, and any other denizens of the underworld who seek to prey on those not strong enough to stand for themselves. In this world of secrets, half-truths and deceptions that live in the open, the greatest danger may not come from the outside at all. The real threat might just be the lies they tell each other or the truths they have yet to face.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TourmalineGreen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TourmalineGreen/gifts), [Melusine11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melusine11/gifts), [thewayofthetrashcompactor (BriarLily)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriarLily/gifts), [SpaceWaffleHouseTM](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/gifts).



> Huge thanks to the 4 people on my gift list, each of you was there that fateful afternoon (Friday Nov 2, 2018 to be exact). You made this story happen, especially you Trixie... I blame you.
> 
> Also, giant thanks to my betas: [elemie89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elemie89/pseuds/elemie89/works), [sidsaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidsaid/works), and [Cecilia1204](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cecilia1204/pseuds/Cecilia1204/works). As always you should go read their work. They are awesome and this would be a complete shit heap without them.
> 
> Chapters will go out weekly on Tue night/Wed morning, midnight EST because I'm OCD like that. Enjoy!

Rey could hear them whispering, feel their eyes as they skated over the gaggle of new recruits. People flitted past, dark shapes against white, curved, antiseptic walls. She took the time to memorize their faces, their voices, the way they walked, the things they said to each other in whispers.

A familiar crop of purple waves floated into view, stealing all of Rey's attention. Amilyn Holdo smiled at her six new recruits in her perfectly pressed, grey pantsuit and glittery black flats. Amilyn was the absolute embodiment of every paradoxical moment Rey'd experienced in her six months of boot camp with the Alliance.

Amilyn was warm, friendly, calm, soothing. She always dressed for the boardroom but had that quirky purple hair and a love of flashy accessories. She was also the most dangerous human being Rey had ever met. Frighteningly smart. Ruthless when she needed to be. Supportive when it better served the situation. Amilyn was the perfect face to greet recruits because she was everything the Alliance was. A collection of contradictions. A paramilitary family. An organization that everyone knew about but no one knew anything about. A group of singularly individual individuals who were unafraid to do the dirty work to make the world a better place.

"Let me be the first to officially welcome you to the Naboo base," Amilyn began. "If you'll permit me, I have one last test for you. Well, it's not _really_ a test. More of a pop quiz. Each of you was given the layout for this facility last night in your brief. I'm sure you all studied it." She pulled a stop watch out of her pocket. "Let's see who makes it to The Pit first."

Amilyn clicked the button and the five bodies surrounding Rey scattered. Three darted left the way Amilyn had come. One ran straight ahead to the hallway behind her. The last went right. Amilyn cocked an eyebrow at Rey.

"Johnson?"

Rey waved to the hallway behind Amilyn. "Shall we?"

Rey had studied the base. It was more than a maze, it was an Escher painting brought to life. Overlapping, circular corridors with winding thoroughfares connecting them. Six levels from top to bottom carved into the side of a mountain but not evenly stacked on top of each other. There were elevators that skipped levels. Stairwells that led to nowhere. It was meant to be hard to navigate and harder still to memorize. At the center of it all sat the heart of the Naboo base, really the heart of the entire Alliance, the center of their global operations: The Cockpit. Everyone just called it The Pit.

Rey took in everything as they walked. There were little tells built in around the base to help those in the know get their bearings. They weren't on the map, but some friends had clued her in. Tiny designs elements built into an otherwise colorless landscape of white walls and black name plates. There were the geometric patterns on the bottom corner of the vents in the outer ring. The thumbnail sized black dots on the north side of every third light fixture along the winding corridor that would take her from the main entrance where she started toward the elevator that would move her closer to The Pit.

When they passed through a third ring Rey saw the trim on the numbered door plates had changed from a single solid line to two thinner lines with a barely discernible gap between them. She'd nearly missed it, stopping abruptly when her mind caught up the data her eyes were sending her.

"Lost?" Amilyn asked.

Rey shook her head, glancing down the hallway to her right. "Screw it." She darted down the hall to the first door, knocked in a predetermined pattern and darted back to where Amilyn was waiting for her. Rey could see the thought forming in her facilitator's mind. The pinched brow and half smile betraying curiosity. Before Rey reached the turn the door slid open behind her with a _hiss._

"Go Rey!" a familiar voice shouted.

"We believe in you!" another called.

Rey spun, trotting backwards. "Thank you!"

Rose and Paige Tico peeked out into the hall from the door of Research and Development. Paige waved. Rose pounded her fist in the air.

She reached Amilyn again and they continued their journey to the elevator.

"How do you know the Tico sisters?" Amilyn asked as when they reached the elevator.

"The assignment in Nepal, where you gave us those cars that were supposed to break down after two hundred miles."

"You bypassed the compressor," Amilyn replied as the elevator door opened. "That was clever."

Rey pushed the button for level four. "Rose thought so too. My first night here they showed up at my door with beers. I was three days ahead of schedule. Nothing else to do." She shrugged.

The elevator door opened again, dropping them off a few feet from a hallway that sloped upward and back around on itself. They climbed their way past a dark office that bore Amilyn's title, Central Networking & Support, and stepped out into the hexagonal room at the end. Rey heard the digital stopwatch _beep_ behind her.

"Welcome to The Pit."

It was incredible. From her vantage point at the gallery railing, Rey could see down into the hexagon below which was organized into four descending levels, at the center of which, was a holographic projector that fed data on active missions to the room. There was one in progress. She could see through the security cameras around what looked to be an affluent dinner party. One of the cameras went dark for a second, it was moving around, swinging.

"Amilyn, that feed there, is that…"

"Optics. Wearable tech. It's a feed directly from our Agents' eyes. That's Poe Dameron." She pointed to a second feed. "That's Ben Solo."

"Ams!" called a gravelly voice behind them.

Rey turned and her heart nearly stopped in her chest. Princess Leia Organa's head was popping out of a doorway not three feet away. It was still insane to her that the last princess of Alderaan was the head of a secret paramilitary organization.

"Giving the tour, Leia," Amilyn replied without looking.

"Oh! You must be Johnson." Then the strangest thing happened. Leia was walking toward her, extending a hand.

Amilyn leaned down and whispered into Rey's ear. "You should shake her hand."

"Right." Rey did as instructed, Leia chuckling at her.

"Where's everyone else?" Leia looked around.

"They'll be along. Johnson's broken another record." Amilyn showed Leia the stopwatch.

"Three minutes?" Leia laughed, her crown of silver braids studded with little jewels that caught the light as her head bounced. "Then why the hell does it take ten minutes to get my coffee in the morning?"

Amilyn chuckled, shaking her head.

"Seriously!"

Their heads turned to the clutch of three students coming around the gallery from the opposite side.

Amilyn pressed the button on her stopwatch again. "Five minutes forty-seven seconds. Not bad."

"But Johnson beat us to it, again." That comment came from a man named Teedo. He never liked Rey and Rey never liked him.

"Get them settled," Leia said. "I'll bug you later."

They waited for the last two stragglers to come along before descending into The Pit.

"Follow me, please." Amilyn stepped around the railing and into one of the aisles. There were four desks on each arm of the hexagon at the top level. "This is Tier Three. Each of these desks belongs to an Agent or their handler." She pointed to their right, seven desks over. "That's Kaydel Connix, she's Poe Dameron's handler. Next to her is Temmin Wexley, Ben Solo's handler." They were both hunkered down over their desks, watching the feeds from their three monitors intently.

Rey recognized the name Solo. Han Solo was a famous smuggler. She'd heard stories about the man growing up. Once, she was even certain a shipment of Christophsis rubies she'd been a party to moving were originally stolen by Han Solo. There were other rumors about Han and a relationship with a certain princess. She wondered if this Ben Solo had anything to do with those rumors. Given everything she'd learned about the Alliance so far, it wouldn't surprise her.

Amilyn stepped down to the next level. The two middle levels had a single long bench along each arm of the hexagon, broken up by the aisles. "Both these levels are Tier Two. Support staff." Amilyn pointed as they walked. "Linguistics. Tech. Military coordination. Research. Anything we might need in the moment."

Finally, Amilyn stepped into the bottom tier. There was a single, unbroken terminal at standing height. It connected to the holographic projector surrounded by bar height chairs. "This is Tier One, the trenches. From here you'll see everything we do at the Alliance. You'll learn a lot here. No job is too small." She pulled out a chair. "Each of you is logged into a guest profile. Today you'll be watching. Use the headset to listen in on the active operation. If you have questions you can use the messaging software."

Shouting from the higher level drew the attention of everyone in the room.

"I'm trying to help you, asshole!" Temmin shouted.

Some of the people around them began to chuckle. Amilyn pulled up the tablet she'd been carrying under her arm and activated her headset, motioning that Rey should do the same.

"Settle down, both of you," Kay said, calmly, but loud enough for her voice to carry.

Rey reached for her headset. She didn't want to miss any more of the action.

"I'll leave you to it," Amilyn said. "Again, if you need anything—"

"Fuck!" A deep voice boomed in Rey's ear followed by a call from the trenches.

"Shots fired!"

 

* * *

 

Ben was flying through the air. It took his brain several seconds to collate all the data in order to determine how he'd gotten there. He parsed out all the noise. A shuffling gait behind him. Quick steps. Slide on the insole. Size twelve. The shadow on the railing told him at least six two. Heavyset. He remembered large hands on his shoulders. Wide palms, short fingers and a strong grip. Synapses triggered, firing rapidly along neural pathways towards an inexorable conclusion. The Italian. Demetrio Nicastro. His brain also parsed the surname's origin to the Italian city Nicastro, near Catanzaro.

It took far less time to reach a long arm out to the chandelier. Muscle memory kicked in. Good preparation helped. He took hold of the gold-plated arm and used his forward momentum to swing up into cover. It would hold his weight. He ignored the confused clambering of the partygoers as they scattered below and scanned the room for other threats, his hand already reaching for the firearm hidden in the holster at his back.

"What the shit, Wexley?" he mumbled into his headset.

"What I was trying to tell you earlier was that Nicastro walked through the door three minutes ago," the voice in his ear seethed.

_For fuck's sake_ , Ben thought. "How many? And where the hell is my backup?"

"I'm on your two," Poe whispered.

Ben's eyes flicked ahead and a hair to the right. There was a corner he couldn't see past. It was a safe bet Poe was beyond it.

"Four men," Temmin said, matter-of-factly. "Two on your level, two below. They've got—"

Cut crystal exploded around Ben, swiftly followed by the report of small arms fire.

"Guns. Thanks for that," Ben spat as he took aim. He shifted his weight, swinging the chandelier beneath him and fired off two shots. The second took out one of his assailants.

More shots. More glass.

"Where's my second? I don't see him," Ben called.

"Eight o'clock," a second voice said in his ear. Kay.

More shots. No glass. Ben turned as fast as the limited space would allow. The figure on the ground floor was already on the move, running down a hall. He called to mind the map of the reception hall as he dropped to the table he knew was waiting below him and braced for impact.

"We need Nicastro alive!" Temmin shouted.

"Yeah? Well then tell him to stop shooting at me!" Poe shouted back.

Ben hit the table and rolled, his suit jacket tearing. He ignored it, already up and running. "I need eyes outside. I've got a hostile headed for the south entrance."

"On it," Temmin said. "Kitchens."

At the end of the hall, Ben shoved the kitchen door open and took aim. Staff were ducking away in a frenzy. The shooter was at the far the end of the room with no sign of slowing.

Ben gave chase.

 

* * *

 

Rey was amazed. In seconds, things had gone from perfectly calm to utter chaos. Not just in Italy - all around her. She followed everything from the central column, trying to stay out of the way as her peers in Tier One bounced around from station to station, responding to commands sent from the other tiers.

"He's heading to the rear parking lot," Temmin stated. "We have his vehicle painted."

_What if he gets in someone else's?_ Rey thought.

"Yeah, and what happens when he doesn't get in his vehicle?" Ben seethed.

"Don't let that happen," Temmin replied.

Rey rolled her eyes, tapping the shoulder of the nearest person.

"Not now," he spat and ran off.

She tried a second person, keeping an eye out on the column above. The feed from Ben's optics showed him inching his way slowly through the kitchen, low and slow. It was a great way to avoid being shot. He'd never make it in time to stop his target.

"Shit!" Kay called. "Nicastro's neutralized. We need that last man."

With a huff, Rey jumped onto the nearest active terminal, pulling up the software she needed and the surveillance footage from the rear loading dock. Sure enough, the man Ben had chased through the kitchen tore across the loading dock and into the sea of vehicles in the gravel parking lot.

"He's out the back door," Temmin said.

Ben rounded the exit onto the loading dock, gun trained, scanning for threats.

Rey set the target. "Lock," she whispered. "Come on, lock."

The sound of gravel retreating under tire treads filled her ears. Ben ran to the end of the loading dock as the vehicle screamed past and onto the road. He tried for the tires but all his shots missed their mark. All except the last. The vehicle skidded, slowing for several seconds. It was just enough time for the blinking light on Rey's screen to go from red to green.

"I got him!" Rey shouted.

Several heads in the room turned toward her.

"Who got him?" Kay called.

"Who got what?" Poe asked, breathlessly.

Vaguely, Rey was aware that Poe had reached the loading dock. He was running full tilt, tapping the shoulder of the man standing at the edge of the platform as he passed.

"Gotta go!" Poe yelled.

Ben jumped off the platform and followed Poe to their car. Seconds later, they were on the road, chasing their errant gangster.

"Still couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a shotgun," Poe needled as they piled into their car.

Ben turned to Poe with a smile. "Yeah?" His smile evaporated. "Then why is Nicastro dead?"

 

* * *

 

"An excellent fucking question if I do say so myself," Leia spat.

The halogen lights in the conference room only served to make her fury more terrifying. Ben and Poe's faces both hardened. Their images on the room's wall-to-wall screen were blown up so large that every detail of their self-loathing was on display. It was almost embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as killing their primary target. "Explain that to me, Tex? How'd the best shot on my team manage to kill my target?" Leia demanded.

"I was under fire."

Leia pressed her index finger against her thumb and rubbed them together for him. She was over their shit. "You know what this is?" Her son was visibly biting back a smile. She caught it. "Go on. Tell him what it is."

"It's the smallest violin in the world playing for you," Ben said, working fiercely not to laugh.

Leia did the same on her other hand. "And this one, smart ass?"

Ben snorted. "In stereo."

"Yeah, I know what it is," Poe spat.

"No," Leia corrected. "This one's for you and whatever sorry excuse you were going to make for why you let the other one get away."

"I thought we painted him?" Ben choked.

"The new kid painted him." Leia spun to take stock of the conference room behind her. Two curved long tables sat on either side, forming a bracket to the Alliance logo on the tile floor. "She's been here less than eight hours and _she's the fucking hero!_ You stood there like a jackass in an expensive suit, wasting my ammunition."

"Sorry, boss," Poe said.

"Sorry, mom," Ben added.

"Sorry, sorry. Both of you get your sorry asses to Santa Lucia and get our lead back here before someone silences him."

"Yes ma'am," they both said. Leia slammed her palm on the button and the call went dead. She rounded on the table of pale faces sitting in the conference room. She took a deep, calming breath and let it out slowly. "Sorry you had to see that. Excellent job today everyone. Johnson, way to distinguish yourself."

"Thank you, ma'am," Rey said.

"D'acy, I want everything you can dig up on this guy. Activate E11."

"Boss," Amilyn looked up at Leia from her tablet. "E11 is in South America right now. We'd be better off activating G67."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Do it."

Amilyn gave her a knowing smile and dipped her head back over her tablet.

Leia slumped into her chair. "Connix, Wexley, you stay. The rest of you are free to go. Write your reports. Someone make sure Johnson knows how to do it, please. Then go home and get some rest. We've got a long day tomorrow."

 

* * *

 

"It's my last day," Tuan We said. She bobbed her head on her long neck and smiled at Rey.

"What? No!" Rey pouted.

Slowly but surely over the last six weeks the Alliance had been moving all the new recruits to other facilities. As they learned, each of them found an area of the operation they gravitated towards. Once their interests surfaced they were relocated. It would be months before any of them moved out of the trenches, but their new trenches were on a base best suited to their skills. Once Tuan left Rey would be the last one left in Naboo.

"Yup. I'm moving to Mon Cala. That's where we do all the genetic research."

Rey sighed. "I'm going to miss you."

"We'll see each other again," Tuan said. "If you get into Relay, we might even see each other again soon."

Rey's interest had popped up right away. She wanted to be in the field. Her long term goal was to become an Agent like Poe, Wedge, Zeb, or Caluan. They were amazing. There was no direct path to becoming an Agent, it was a jack of all trades sort of job and she would need to prove proficiencies in a number of different areas. Her best option would be transferring to Relay, as it was the only field commission available to new recruits. All it required was three months at Tier One before she could apply for the skills exam, which she already knew she could pass.

She wouldn't be assigned to missions directly. Relays ferried information, weapons and vehicles around the globe to the Agents and Operatives on assignments. Much like Tier One, she'd be getting her feet wet only in the real world, networking with Operatives instead of office workers. More than one Relay had proved themselves when a simple handoff had gone sideways. If she chose any other path, she'd end up a desk jockey for a year or more.

They'd gone on outings during boot camp, but she'd been stuck behind a screen for over a month, watching other people have all the fun. She was desperate to get back out there. There was a great big world to see, and Rey wanted to walk every inch of it.

"Two more months." Rey crossed her fingers.

Tuan did the same. "Two more months. Then I'll see you in the Caribbean."

Rey's terminal indicated she had an incoming call. "Johnson."

"It's Kay." Rey knew who it was. The display told her that. "I need you to run over to R&D with those specs you sent me. Rose has questions. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but Poe seems to like it."

"Sure," Rey replied.

"Great! Thanks a bunch. Good chat. Bye."

The line went dead before Rey could respond. Rey wasn't sure what to make of Kay. Poe's handler _seemed_ nice enough but there was a falseness to her that no one else seemed to pick up on. Rey wasn't sure if it was a lifetime of mistrust that made her wary or just a general dislike of the overly polite way Kay treated everyone. They were running clandestine operations on a global scale. It seemed a bit redundant to send 'thank you' emails, especially when the only thing in them were the words, 'thank you'.

Rey took her datapad and trekked across the facility to the research and development unit. Her access was limited and she was forced to wait in the hall for Rose to come and retrieve her. Shouting in the corridor drew her attention toward the open door leading into the commissary. A mug flew into the hall, shattering against the far wall in a hail of black coffee and ceramic shards.

"You almost got me killed!"

She knew that voice. Agent Besh-Senth-Zero-Seven, Ben Solo. He was one of the best operatives the Resistance had and one of the worst human beings Rey could imagine having to work with. He was rude, capricious, arrogant and absolutely impossible to please. She'd only done work on two of his jobs – aside from her day one Hail Mary – both times he'd sent back her recommendations with notes. On one, his notes were about the grammar mistakes on a translation she hadn't done. The translator's name was on the document but he still blamed her for not proof-reading it first.

"What the fuck was I supposed to do? You were in the wrong building!"

The second voice was his handler, shouting back as always. Temmin was a decent guy. A bit green, but so was Rey. He had a good head on his shoulders and was making the best out of a bad situation. His problem was that when Ben got angry, he got angry in response. Instead of working out their problems, they got into shouting matches. Everyone in the Pit knew something had gone wrong on one of their assignments if Temmin started shouting.

"I wouldn't have been in the wrong fucking building if you hadn't sent me the wrong fucking intel!" Ben shouted.

"It wasn't wrong, it was just incomplete," Temmin called back.

"Incomplete is wrong."

"How the fuck was I supposed to know there would be two hotels with the same name?"

"RESEARCH!" A loud crash alerted Rey that Ben had flipped a table, again. "That's your job. You sit on your ass all day and cover all the bases. How is that fucking hard? It's reading comprehension. Can you read?"

"I'm so sick of your bullshit, Solo!" Temmin appeared in the hall, his middle finger flying behind him as he turned in Rey's direction. "I'm done."

Ben appeared in the doorway a moment later. "Halle-fucking-lujah! You've set a new record, Wexley. Seven weeks. You should be proud of yourself. Even Bridger lasted longer than that and he didn't have half as many brain cells."

Temmin gave Rey an apologetic look as he approached.

"Chin up, Tem," she whispered to him.

He gave her a half smile that evaporated the second Ben opened his mouth again.

"Don't talk to him, Johnson. You'll get dumber."

She turned her attention to Ben, speaking calmly but firmly. "I will speak to whomever I please, thank you."

Ben eyed her warily, pursing his lips. Most people were afraid of him. When he walked into a room everyone avoided his gaze. Rey found it best to deal with bullies head on. If you showed them you weren't an easy target they had a tendency to move on.

"Please and thank you? Well, aren't you the model of etiquette?" Ben sneered.

The door to R&D opened and Rose rolled her eyes when she saw Ben staring daggers at Rey.

"Take your frustrations out on someone else, Solo. I'm not going to argue with you," Rey replied, holding his gaze.

"A wise decision."

They stood, locked in a silent war, neither of them willing to blink first. Ben's phone went off. He kept her in his sight as he pulled it from his pocket and brought it to his ear. "Solo."

The voice on the other end was so loud Rey could hear the tinny buzz of shouting from down the hall. Ben winced, turning back into the commissary. Rey had won that round. She wondered how long it would be before he made her pay for it.

 

* * *

 

Temmin looked like a man defeated as he slumped into the chair opposite Leia's desk. Her office was sparsely decorated and rarely used. She wanted nothing more than to be standing in the conference room having this conversation but it couldn't be helped. Things had finally reached a boiling point and sooner than anyone estimated.

"It's just a few more months until we can get a replacement," Leia pleaded. "I've got a really solid lead. I just need a little more time."

"I can't do it anymore, Leia. I'm sorry. I'd rather be run over by a Mac truck than spend another day on the receiving end of your son's vitriol."

"That can be arranged." Ben said, sliding into his mother's office.

Leia glared at her son. "Sit down. Shut up. And do not open your mouth again until I give my express permission, is that clear Agent?"

Amilyn followed Ben in, closing the door behind her.

"Please Tem, if nothing else, I need you for this weekend." Leai felt like she was begging. In her way, she was. "The op in Mexico City is critical."

"No. I won't be held responsible for another fuck up. We both made mistakes because we don't trust each other. That's more dangerous than having to start over with the Mexicans. There could be civilian casualties, another international incident. We can't afford it. I won't do it."

Leia sighed. Temmin was right. It was a miracle no one had died on the last mission. Lando was having a hell of a time cleaning it up. She looked up at Amilyn and nodded.

"I'm approving your transfer, effective immediately," Amilyn said, tapping at the tablet that never left her arm. "Your access to the house will be revoked at nineteen hundred. Stay in the barracks tonight. Coordinate with Section for shipping. We have an oh-six-hundred flight for the Jedah facility. Be on it."

Temmin stood. "Thank you, Amilyn. Thank you, Leia. Good luck, Ben. I mean that."

"Fuck off," Ben rolled his eyes.

"I told you not to speak," Leia snapped, pointing an angry finger at him. "Godspeed, Tem. Take care of yourself."

"Yes, ma'am."

When the door closed behind Temmin, Leia rounded on her son. "What the hell am I supposed to do with you, Ben? That's the fourth one in less than two years."

"Ninety six weeks to be exact," Ben replied.

"You are insufferable." Leia leaned back in her chair. "Amilyn, do you mind?"

Amilyn turned on her heel and was gone a second later. Ben gave good face. Anyone who looked at him wouldn't see past the bravado. Or the prickly exterior he used to house the deep well of uncertainty that lived beneath it but Leia could see it like a bright star on a clear night.

"I know I don't need to remind you of this—"

"But you're going to."

"But I'm going to. We're running out of rope, kiddo. If I can't find you a handler that sticks I'm going to have to pull you out of the field."

"You can't," Ben leaned toward her desk, the first trickle of panic showing through. "Please, it's working."

"Is it? You've abused every handler I've given you. Kun catalogued every one of your nightly episodes in great detail. It's little wonder she didn't figure out what the hell you were screaming about."

"Kun didn't follow protocol."

Leia rolled her eyes. "Kun didn't follow protocol. Wexley didn't pay attention to the details. Bridger was too soft. Connix wasn't smart enough."

"She isn't. I don't know why the hell you promoted her."

"Because she's damn good at her job, Ben! They all are. The problem here is you and if we can't solve that problem soon I'm going to have to revoke your commission." Leia stood. "As of this moment, you're grounded."

Ben snorted. "You gonna send me to my room?"

"I don't want you anywhere near that house until Temmin is out. You're stuck here until nineteen hundred. I'm sending you a list of possible handlers. You have forty eight hours to pick one or I'm giving the job in Mexico City to Poe."

"Hell no!" Ben stood too, following his mother toward the door. "You can't give him this op. I've been working on it for months. Nobody knows it better than I do."

Leia pushed the door open, dropping her voice. "Then I strongly recommend you start going over that list and taking a good hard look at your choices. You're benched until I decide otherwise." She stopped mid stride. "And if you can't make the next one stick, I can't promise there will be another after that."


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take long for news of Temmin's transfer to reach the lowest levels of the Pit. By the next morning everyone knew why Ben was pacing a steady circle around gallery. He was weighing his options. Leia had given him a deadline and everyone in Tiers One and Two who'd ever held a hope of getting promoted held their breath, praying that their name would not be drawn.

Rey knew there were at least three possible candidates overseas, but the timeline was too narrow. By the time the transfer was complete, the op planned for Mexico City would already be underway. She knew enough about the inter-spy politics to know Ben didn't want Poe taking his mission. On that score she didn't blame him. He'd put in months of legwork to get his meeting with the Crimson Dawn. Subbing someone out at the last minute would turn an already tense situation into a powder keg. One spark and boom.

She also wasn't feeling the same terror as everyone else in the room because she wasn't eligible to become a handler. It required a minimum of six months time in grade and a battery of coursework that took at least another three to learn. If she had her way, by the time Ben Solo tore through another handler she'd be long gone. At which point, her only interactions with him would involve deliveries. There was also the matter of Ben's reputation for being self-sufficient in the field. He rarely needed or wanted mid-op handoffs. She could live with that.

The one thing Rey had gotten used to, growing up in the slums of Tehran, was the inevitability of change. By midday the tide had shifted again.

"Poe!" Kay's frantic shout drew every eye in the room. "Poe! Come in, Poe!"

While every chair turned toward Kay, Rey doubled down at her station, pulling up Poe's last GPS hit and vitals. His optics and vitals were down but his tracker was still online. He was moving quickly through Sa'ee Park, more than likely not under his own steam.

"Margo, can we get a satellite view?" Rey barked, as she pulled up CCTV footage around the park and sent the request to Kay's terminal to upload to the central screen.

Kay ignored the blinking request on her computer in favor of shouting into the microphone at her ear. Poe's tracker was moving out to the street before it stopped for a moment. Rey guessed he was being loaded into a vehicle.

"Satellite's moving now. Thirty seconds. Request sent," Margo said from her terminal.

"Connix!" Ben barked from the gallery.

Kay turned to him in a daze.

"Answer the requests. Your team is trying to support you. Lead them!"

Kay dropped into her seat, finally focusing her attention on her terminal. Rey glanced up to give Ben a nod of thanks but he was already gone. So much for his help. Rey refocused on the problem. She caught sight of three men shoving Poe into the back of a van.

"I have a visual!" Rey called out, pulling every ounce of data they had on the vehicle. Make and model, brand of tires, records for the plate number. "They're heading north." Her stomach dropped. "Kay, the military detention complex is only fifteen miles away. We need an intercept before then."

"Working on it," Kay replied. "Can we disrupt the traffic patterns? Slow them down?"

The man to Rey's immediate left dove back into his terminal. "On it."

Rey stood, turning to Kay. "They're not in a government vehicle so delaying them will work for the first few miles, but if they've tagged Poe as an enemy agent then the police will be called in the next three minutes. They'll clear the way. We need to intercept them."

"I appreciate your advice Johnson, but let me handle this. Focus on keeping up with them and someone get me the police chatter." Kay's tone was mild but Rey could sense the underlying frustration at being second guessed.

Rey, who wasn't easily given over to pride, shut her mouth and did her job. The police were called inside two minutes. Messing with traffic had caused an accident en route that forced the vehicle to divert.

"We don't have anyone to intercept them in time. Leia, I need air support," Kay said.

Rey looked up to see Leia standing at the railing watching the situation unfold. Ben was standing right behind her.

"What are we looking at once he's inside?" Leia asked.

"Give me a minute," Kay replied.

They didn't have a minute. This was her back yard. Her old home. She knew where he was headed and how bad it would be once he was inside. "Zoresht is one of the highest security facilities in Tehran. If Poe goes in, it will take a small army to get him out and the odds are long. It's a death trap. Seventy percent mortality rate. We don't want him inside."

Leia's eyes narrowed on Rey. "Drones."

Support teams in Tier Two went to work mobilizing remotely operated aircraft. One of them jumped out of his seat. "I've got a recon team on the other side of town who can move in. They're twenty minutes out."

"Where's my air support?" Leia spat.

"Drones in the air," called an agent in Tier Two. "Two minutes."

Rey was already back at her terminal. "Five until Poe's out of reach."

"Connix. Why is Poe unresponsive?" Leia called.

"I don't know," Kay cried. "One minute he was walking towards the target and the next all his biometrics were gone."

Rey rolled her eyes and was glad no one had seen her. "Taser," she called. "His last biometric readings indicate an electrical current. Higher than a standard taser which is why it knocked out our biometrics. The government's been experimenting with higher voltage devices for the last couple of years. Last I checked they hadn't been implemented in the field but there's evidence of them being used in the last two demonstrations to suppress protesters." She paused, checking the timer. "Three minutes."

"Twelve seconds," the air support team called.

"ETA on my extraction?" Leia asked.

"Sixteen minutes."

The whole room held their breath as two drones rained bullets down on the van. One took out the driver's side front and rear tires. Persian nationals spilled out of the back, firing on the small craft. It banked for a second pass and exploded.

"What the hell was that?" Kay called.

"Shooters, west side of the road," a voice called from the Trenches.

Rey looked up just in time to watch the plane go down. The Iranians pulled Poe out of the back. He was still unconscious. Two more vehicles pulled up, their occupants ushering the Iranians forward. The second drone closed in, aiming for the vehicles. They didn't want to accidentally kill Poe in the rescue attempt. One of the men holding Poe went down.

"Careful," Leia warned.

Every man with a gun trained it on the incoming drone. Smoke rose from the fuselage and it went down.

"No!" Kay screamed.

"Twelve minutes to extraction."

They loaded Poe into a car and took off down the road.

"Three minutes to Zoresht," Rey added.

"Alright people. We need to buy our team some time. What do we have?"

Rey racked her brain for everything she knew about her city. It had been close to a year since she'd left. More than enough time for things to change on her, but there were one or two chips she still had to cash in. She jumped out of her seat.

"I know people in the Yateem. For the right price they'll help us. They can scoop Poe up and get him to our extraction team."

Leia turned to the woman now standing opposite Ben at the railing.

Amilyn tapped away at her keyboard. "You've got an outside line. Make the call."

Rey dialed the number from memory and held her breath as it rang. Noise baffling technology on the headset would filter out the background conversation. She had to trust it was good enough.

_"Salam. Chetori?"_

Relief flooded through Rey. _"Nazreen, it's Partow. I need your help."_

She gave her old friend the cliff notes of what was wrong and what she needed. Nazreen was an old contact who had friends in the underground. Friends who weren't overly fond of the Iranian government and would do anything to be a thorn in their side. Rey scanned the overheads as she spoke, watching with amusement as the translation software worked through their conversation, broadcasting it for everyone to follow.

_"I hear there is a situation outside the prison. Are you doing this?"_ Nazreen asked.

_"I am,"_ Rey replied.

_"Then you have made some very powerful friends."_

_"I have."_

_"Friends who would be willing to do us a favor in the future?"_

Rey turned to Leia who nodded. _"They would. You get our man out and we can discuss terms."_

_"We will speak again soon."_

_"Ghorbunet beram,"_ Rey replied and the line went dead.

"Seven minutes to extraction."

"We have to tell them to hold," Rey called. "If our people show up the Yateem will turn it into a firefight."

"We have to get Poe out of there as quickly as possible," Kay countered.

"Which is what I'm trying to help us do. If unknown combatants show up the Yateem will fire on them. That will buy the Iranian government time to get their shit together. It'll be a standoff in the street and we'll lose more than Poe when the bullets start flying."

Ben leaned into Leia, whispering something in her ear. She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Tell the extraction team to keep moving, but do not engage. We'll let the locals get Poe out." Leia looked to Rey. "Given your history, I'm assuming you've negotiated with them before."

"Extensively, though I've never bartered for a life other than my own."

Shots rang out and every eye turned back to the screens. The vehicle Poe was in was pinned in the corner of an intersection, his captors exchanging fire with a group of masked men and women across the street. They could see the gate of the prison complex in the background slowly opening.

"This doesn't look good," Kay said.

"Wait for it," Rey said.

From behind the pinned car another group appeared, taking out one of Poe's captors and engaging the other two hand to hand. Rey's heart was hammering in her chest. She didn't know who was under those masks or if any had been her friends. She prayed none were as soldiers from the prison made their way up the street toward the conflict.

Everyone in the room held their breath for a second time. The captors were down. The Yateem had taken Poe and were carrying his limp body across the street, making it across. Three masked men entered the closest building, two behind Poe bringing up the rear. The soldiers opened fire and, one by one, their hopes fell to the concrete in a hail of bullets and blood. The soldiers surrounded Poe where he lay lifeless in the street corner, amid a sea of dead bodies. A vehicle came up from the prison before shoving the Agent into it and driving away.

Poe was gone.

 

* * *

 

Ben leaned into Leia's ear again. " _Partow_ is it?"

Leia glared at him out of the corner of her eye. He didn't need the confirmation to get a rise out of his mother. She jerked her head toward the conference room, letting him know that his services would be required on this one. After all, he did have a history with Tehran, the Yateem, and apparently, Johnson.

He didn't bother to wait around as Leia gave her little pep talk to the team. Thanking them for the good work. Encouraging them to keep their chins up. Assuring them that we'd do everything in our power to get our man back. He'd heard enough of her speeches for a lifetime. He knew better. Every agent, to an extent, was expendable. It came with the job. They would do everything, within reason, to get Poe back but not at the expense of revealing themselves or their operation.

The conference room where Leia preferred to hold court held to the circular motifs Ben's grandparents had loved so much. The ovular conference room with its curved tables and a narrow gap between them. In theory it was so that everyone would appear equal, but when Leia stormed up the center there was never any question as to who was in charge.

Ben took a seat at the head of the room under the large curved screen and waited. It didn't take long for Leia to march through the door, Amilyn, Kay and Rey following in her wake. Amilyn moved around the outside of the tables but Leia indicated Kay and Rey should follow her up the middle.

Kay didn't wait for Leia to turn before she began. "Leia I'd like to request a rescue mission—"

"Oh for love of god, Connix. What the hell do you think I called you in here for?" Leia rolled her eyes at Ben before turning toward the two women. "Johnson, I'm not ashamed to admit we don't have a lot of information on the Yateem. They're a relatively new organization and Ben is one of the few agents we have who's had contact with them. I need to know, how likely are they to hold us responsible for the deaths of their men today?"

Ben saw it then, the angle Leia was looking for. He had a pretty good idea what his mother was going to do, but she had a bad habit of throwing him curve balls. Best not to assume.

"Not likely," Rey replied. "I'm pretty sure those men were Iranian black ops. The Yateem will be pleased so many of them died today. The sacrifice their people made is a worthwhile price for those deaths."

"I do know the Yateem have no love for Unkar Plutt. You should know the mission today was to meet a contact within Plutt's organization. If your friends find this out we could have a bigger issue on our hands."

Rey nodded. Ben noticed that she didn't flinch at the use of the word 'friends'.

"They were hostiles?" Kay asked.

Ben caught Leia's frown and Amilyn's hesitation over her keypad, but the biggest shock in the room was definitely written all over Rey's face. She needed to learn to keep that in check if she intended to become a spy. The stupidity of the situation was enough to make him chuckle.

"I'm so glad you find this funny. Poe could die," Kay spat.

"And who's fault would that be?" Ben asked. "Three years ago Plutt and Niima Amura of clan Hutt went into a shadow war that ended with large swaths of both their organizations defecting. They became an anti-government movement known as the Yateem, the Orphans." He leaned back in his chair. "And you're standing next to one of them. Johnson could have been a huge resource to you on this mission, but you were too busy playing grab ass with Wexley to do your homework."

He hadn't been entirely certain she was sleeping with Wexley. The look of pure venom on Kay's face confirmed it, making him that much happier he'd sent Wexley packing.

"Ben," Leia warned.

"Shutting up," he replied.

Leia's gaze settled on Rey. "What are the chances they'll continue to work with us?"

"Depends on the request," Rey replied. "They're still going to want repayment for their part today. Happy or not, they lost people and that's a debt to be paid. Information, shelter, transportation - all things they can help us with. An assault on a prison complex? They've had people in there for years. If they're even willing to consider it, the cost will be high and they won't want to do it alone."

Ben smiled. She'd seen it too. Leia's angle. The Resistance couldn't afford to launch an assault on the prison without the risk of revealing themselves and potentially inciting an international incident. On the other hand, a local anti-government organization would be the perfect foil.

"How much?" Leia asked.

"Hard to say. At the bare minimum—"

"You can't be serious?" Kay screeched. "We're not actually talking about sending a terrorist organization into that facility to recover Poe? Especially not one that failed miserably."

"Connix, one more outburst and I will take you off this assignment. Are we clear?"

"But Leia…" The look on Leia's face silenced whatever argument Kay had queued up. "Clear."

Leia nodded to Rey, encouraging her to continue.

"Support enough to do the job. Weapons, armor, vehicles." Rey sighed. "It's blood for blood. They won't do it unless we're on the ground with them."

"All reasonable," Amilyn interjected, already making notes on her ever present tablet. "Anything else?"

"For work like this they're going to want something special. That's the one ask I can't quantify. I've been out of the loop for months. It could be intelligence. It could be help moving against another faction. They could want us to help them get their own out. We really won't know until we ask."

Leia nodded several times to herself. She and Amilyn exchanged a look. Amilyn nodded. Ben kept a close eye on their interplay. On the silent cues between them. They were agreeing to terms they had not yet shared with anyone else. If this was going to work, Ben needed to know what they were eyeballing each other about.

"In light of the current situation, I'm putting Ben in charge of this op until Poe is recovered. Kay you'll remain in your position and Rey will take a consulting role."

"Who will handle the negotiations?" Rey asked.

"As the Agent, that task falls to Ben," Leia replied. "But I want you listening in. You know these people better than anyone so we'll need your insight. Now, the two of you, get on it. I need to have a word with Connix."

 

* * *

 

Poe woke all at once, his mind immediately orienting to the strange surroundings. He knew what the inside of a cell looked like, had spent more occasions than he cared to count inside them. None had ever been in Iran. That was the part that made him nervous. He knew Leia's options were limited. There was nearly no chance of a rescue attempt. If he was going to get out he had to do it on his own, which meant figuring out what he was dealing with.

He played back the afternoon in his head. His contact had come into view and immediately showed signs of bolting. That was the first indicator something was wrong. The second was being electrocuted. Poe was in and out after that. There were vague snippets of a firefight, being jostled around a lot, and screaming. A whole lot of screaming.

On cue, an ear shattering wail ripped through the corridor. Poe made sure to get up slowly and hobble toward the bars of his cell. If anyone was watching, he didn't want them to know what condition he was in. He needed to play it smart. Leaning heavily on the bars, he took in as much of the surrounding hallway as he could see.

There wasn't much light. A few stray beams coming in from a source he couldn't see. Most of the room was dark. There were cells in either direction, all open bar like his and likely identical to the one he was in. The rows of cells stretched on so far he couldn't see the end in either direction. No guards. No doors. No sense of where the screaming was coming from as it bounced through room.

He slid to the floor where he could keep an eye on the sunlight. At the very least, it would tell him what time of day it was, which direction he was facing. It wasn't much, but any data was good in his current situation. Propping himself against the wall, he settled in for a long stretch of watching the sun set or rise. Could be either one.

Movement in the cell across from his drew his eye. A man came to the edge of the bars, peeking through them with wide eyes. His black skin was caked in blood and dirt, clothes torn and stained.

"Do you speak English?" The man was nearly crying, his American accent belying just a hint of something southern. "Please tell me you speak English."

Poe kept up the alias he'd been using, affecting a German accent with British overtones to his vowels. "I do. Do you know where we are, sir?"

"Oh thank god!" the man sighed. "I'm George. George Carver. We're in the Zoresht detention facility in District Twenty."

That was very bad news. Zoresht was where the Iranian government sent foreigners to die. The international community had been trying to get inside for years, but the Iranians dug their heels in and scoffed at allegations of human rights violations. Given the ever-rising timbre of the screaming, Poe was guessing the UN had gotten a thing or two right.

"What's your name man? What're you in for?" George asked, speaking in a rush.

"I am Emil Stroman. I am here on a diplomatic assignment for my government. As to what I am in for? That I cannot tell you as I do not know."

"Man, we're all in the same boat here. You don't gotta lie to me." George slid down the wall to sit, the mirror image of where Poe was seated. "I was snooping around outside this place, tryna get a good story for my editor. I've been here a week and ain't heard shit."

"I am sorry, my friend. Truly, I was taken in the course of my duty. I have done nothing wrong. This is a gross miscarriage of justice and my government will not take this quietly."

"I hope so man. If what I've heard about this place is true, you and me, we ain't gonna last long."

Poe noted the defeat in his voice. There was an undercurrent of strength to it - borderline defiance. George Carver had survived a week of what was likely daily torture and he wasn't a quivery mess. He would not give up without a fight. Poe could use a man like that.

"What have they done to you? What have you seen, Mr. Carver?"

"George, man. Call me George. If we're gonna die, I ain't gonna go out being called Mr. Carver."

"George, then."

"Well, I ain't seen much, but here's what I know..."

 

* * *

 

Rey leaned back in her chair. The lines on the map in front of her were starting to blur together. She couldn't remember how many cups of coffee she'd drunk or how many hours she and Ben had been locked in the prep room. They'd gone over Poe's dailies, every possible scenario for how it might have gone wrong, caught up on the last couple of years of intel regarding Tehran's underground, put together a list of likely requests the Yateem would make in exchange for their help and had hit an impasse on the viability of a strike against the prison.

"I don't see you offering any suggestions," she spat.

"It's too risky," he said for the millionth time, knocking back his already empty coffee cup.

With a sigh, Rey stood, retrieving the pot, two packets of sugar and placing them in the middle of the table. He frowned at the offering. She didn't care. He could drink it or not, not her problem. He opened his mouth, but he stopped at the sound of the door.

"Alright you two," Amilyn leaned into the doorframe. "It's after midnight. Fresh start in the morning."

"I'll stay," Ben said.

"No, you won't. Your vitals are still screwed. Go home. Try to get at least a couple of hours sleep. I'll keep watch tonight."

"Fine," he growled. "I'll give you a ride to the barracks, Johnson."

"I don't mind the walk," she replied, collecting her things.

"And I don't mind driving." He held the door open. "Hang a right."

She was too tired to argue with him, again. He was a pain in the ass to work with, but not nearly as bad as she'd assumed. He focused on the job, filtered out the extraneous details. That worked for Rey. She'd learned quickly to pick her battles. If they were going to get through this assignment she could bend on the little things. He led her to the elevator and they rode down to the garage in silence. It was nearly empty by the time they reached it. Rey wasn't aware of any other active assignments so most of the staff would have gone home at the end of the day.

Ben pulled the key fob from his pocket. With the press of a button, the engine sprung to life from across the room. "I've been meaning to ask you. _Partow?_ I can't find a translation for it. What does it mean? "

Rey smiled, remembering the old man who'd given her that name. "It's an older word, used primarily in literature. Roughly, it means the light of the sun - a ray."

"Read a lot of Persian poetry?" There was a hint of amusement in his question. This was his version of a joke.

Rey rolled her eyes as she reached for the handle. "No, the name was given to me by my tutor when I was a child."

"Before your parents died?" There was no mirth in his follow up question.

Rey nodded.

"Why didn't you go to the embassy?"

She wasn't sure why she answered. It was impolite to ask a relative stranger about the violent circumstance that made her an orphan. Perhaps it was the lack of hesitation. Most people danced around it awkwardly. He'd just asked directly, like he was curious about her favorite color.

"I was too young to understand. Policemen came in and killed my parents. I didn't know they were any different to the officials at the embassy."

"And later? When you were old enough to understand it?"

"By then it was my life. I was one of Plutt's at first. Then a Yateem in every sense of the word. I'd met too many drug lords, politicians, and militants to trust any government." She snorted. "What the hell was I supposed to do anyway? Go back to London or Paris? Go to high school? University? There aren't any degrees for picking dead mens' pockets."

"I get the feeling you did more for Plutt than pick dead mens' pockets."

"I was a scavenger. Sometimes that meant picking dead mens' pockets. Sometimes it meant lifting a few million in Christophsis rubies."

"I'd heard of you," he said, pulling out of the garage. "The last time I was in Tehran, I needed to make a pick up at Chitgar Lake but I was being followed. I called an old contact of mine who no longer worked for Plutt. It was the first time I heard the word 'Yateem'."

"That was you?" she chuckled. "I almost sold those documents. I know who owned Sidious, knew the right buyer would pay a lot for them. More than I was being offered."

"You opened the package?" Ben was staring at her like she'd just grown a second head.

"Eyes on the road!"

"They are," he glanced out the windshield and back at her. "It was sealed. How did you open it without me noticing?"

"I already told you. I was a scavenger. The most valuable thing I could trade was information."

They pulled up to the facility gate, Ben's full attention switching back to the road.

"Though the fact that you never noticed just made my day."

They lapsed into silence as they made the short drive through the apartment complex just beyond the gate. She didn't have to tell him which unit she lived in. That sort of data was available to everyone. He'd probably looked it up.

"Thanks for the ride."

"Piece of advice. If you want to be an agent you need to learn to better control your reactions. You looked like you were going to slap Connix today."

She stepped out onto the asphalt and leaned into the open doorway. "I was in control of my reaction. That look was for her benefit, but thank you for your advice."

Ben snorted as the door closed. The engine revved. Before she reached the second floor landing he was out of the complex. She could just make out the red streaks as he climbed the mountain to the pod houses closer to the summit. One day she was going to have a house up there. If she had her way, it would be sooner rather than later.


	3. Chapter 3

Ben expected to have a few uninterrupted hours of work before the base started cluttering up with people. His mother, who rarely practiced what she preached, had scheduled a meeting for seven am. The meeting invite went out at three in the morning. Sleep was never a viable option for him, so he'd come in early to see if there was a new way to approach a rescue mission. In the absence of workable scenarios, they were faced with the possibility of leaving Poe to rot in prison for a good long time.

When the door opened behind him, he expected a slew of recriminations from Amilyn and chose to head them off. "I got three hours of sleep. You can check my vitals."

"Is that normally how you start conversations?" Rey asked.

Ben whipped around in his chair. It wasn't often that people surprised him but she just kept on doing it. "Johnson? What the hell are you doing here at this hour?"

"I thought I would get an early start. Seems I wasn't the only one." She put a fresh carafe of coffee on the table with two mugs. "Couldn't sleep?"

He eyed the coffee suspiciously as Rey fished a mountain of sugar packets from her bag. "I never sleep."

"So I've heard," she replied, pouring herself a cup. She took her coffee black. No frills. Just caffeine. She always held the mug from the cylinder instead of the handle and poured with her right, a sign she favored her left hand. In the absence of a watch he'd have to find another way of determining if she was left-handed. "Any luck?"

He shook his head, watching her carefully as she slid the carafe toward him. She was being nice. She'd been polite the day before. Now she was being nice. It made him wary.

"I have a question for you," she started.

He waited. If she had a question, eventually she would get around to asking it. She took his silence as invitation.

"What happens to Poe if we can't get him out? What's the protocol?"

"Inaction. We'll do what we can, but the secrecy of our organization is priority one. If we can't get him out without exposing ourselves then he stays where he is. Poe knew that walking in."

"What's the worst case scenario?"

He frowned. "He spends what's left of his life in prison and dies there."

"And the best case?"

"He finds a way out on his own."

Her nose wrinkled. "That's not likely in Zoresht."

"No, it isn't."

She swirled the coffee in her mug, staring at the black liquid. He could see an idea lurking in there. She'd thought of something but wasn't ready to come out and say it. This girl had already proved herself smart and capable. High marks in training. Effective survival and critical thinking skills. It was obvious from her skill set and interest the last few weeks that she wanted to move into field work. More than likely Relay then testing into Operatives. Her instincts were good, so why was she stalling?

"But we won't attempt to silence him in order to protect ourselves?"

Ben shook his head. "He's a good agent. Well trained. He won't succumb to torture."

"The staff at Zoresht are experts in torture."

He continued shaking his head. "The Swiss are experts in torture. I wouldn't say the Iranian's are easy by comparison but Poe's been trained to withstand worse. There's only one agent who's better suited to long, torturous incarcerations."

"Who?"

"Me." He plucked two sugar packets from the table and shook them, watching carefully as Rey considered his admission. He was fishing now, testing her curiosity.

She didn't take the bait. Instead, she leaned against the wall, eyes darting around the room. "How long do you think he could hold out?"

"Where is this going, Johnson?"

"I'm gathering data. I know everything I can know about Zoresht. We can't break in without risking further losses. That means we need to look at other approaches. I need to know more about the Alliance, about what our agents are capable of." She paused. "Answer the question, please."

"Unknown. At least a few years."

"What's the longest period of time Poe Dameron has been imprisoned?"

"He's been taken prisoner seventeen times in his service record. His shortest run as a captive was three hours. His longest, four days. He's gotten himself out of every one of them. No rescue necessary."

Rey scrunched her nose again. "And the longest we've allowed an agent to remain incarcerated?"

"Depends on the outcome. The longest before escaping was thirteen months, I think. The longest before death was just under three years. The longest before a rescue attempt could be mounted, six."

She nearly choked on her coffee. "Six years?"

He nodded.

Her demeanor changed. The professional indifference melting away into genuine curiosity. "Who?"

"Above your clearance level, Johnson." He leaned back in his chair. "Well above."

Her calm, curated exterior evaporated all at once. "Everything is a fucking secret. It's a wonder we get anything done." She shoved off the wall with a huff. "You know, I can't even pull the case files on this mission? Everything I know, you've told me. How am I supposed to consult on an assignment I don't know anything about?"

He chuckled. "Welcome to espionage. You're not consulting on Poe's assignment, you're consulting on his recovery. If it becomes necessary to clear you for the rest, we will."

She scowled. Rey Johnson had a temper simmering under that cool exterior. Ben filed the information away for later. It might be useful.

"So, you going to share whatever it is you thought up or do you still need more data?"

She glowered at him, weighing her options. It was clear she still wasn't sure if she should tell him. After a full minute of staring a hole into his forehead she dropped into the seat across from.

"Zoresht isn't meant to house inmates long term. The average length of stay is just under two weeks. I've found no records of prisoners being kept longer than four."

"That's oddly specific." Ben leaned in, pulling the records up on the tabletop interface.

"It's by design. I didn't realize until this morning... I think Zoresht is a vetting center."

"Explain."

"They use the facility to determine if their captives have useful information. The ones who don't die from the torture are executed if they offer nothing of use." She sifted through the records, finding the documents on prisoner transfers. "And sent to other military facilities if they do."

He saw it then. There was a definite pattern:  names, dates, counties of origin. He tapped furiously into the computer, trying to link them to a missing persons database they kept on intelligence agents around the world. A hand closed over his. Rey's hands were tiny by comparison. The hand slid away again, dropping into her bag, leaving Ben to wonder.

"Don't bother, I've already done the work." She retrieved her tablet. With a few clicks, each of the transfers for the last three years was matched up to a series of missing persons from around the world. Ben tore through each one, skimming them for details. She'd even gone as far as to extrapolate moves the Iranian government made to the intelligence they likely got from their prisoners. It was incredibly thorough.

"This is hours of work," he mused.

"Wait till you see this," she smiled, tapping away at her tablet.

It was time to test a theory. He reached across the table, stilling her hand as she had just done to him. "How many hours of sleep did you get?"

She quirked an eyebrow, her only response an impish smile. It told him everything he needed.

Rey wasn't afraid of him. Most of the idiots in this facility were too scared to even make eye contact. She hadn't hesitated at physical contact. Hadn't once backed down from an argument about tactics. Hadn't avoided his eye. Hadn't squirmed when he pushed her. In a few hours she'd memorized the way he took his coffee. Learned when to press an argument and when to let one go. Now, she'd just given them the first solid lead on a way of getting Poe back. Rey was proving more and more interesting by the minute.

 

* * *

 

Leia raised an eyebrow at her son as he strode in for their meeting. It was unsettling that he was smiling like the cat that ate the canary. It was stranger still that he wasn't alone.

"Good morning, you two." Amilyn, as always, was her cheery self. "You look happy."

Rey glanced at Ben uncertainly. He nodded, ceding the floor. Leia smiled. It confirmed one of her suspicions – these two might actually work well together. Often enough, she needed her agents to work in teams, but Ben wasn't much of a team player. If they could train Rey up right, these two might be well suited for running assignments together.

"We might have a way to get Poe back without a direct assault on Zoresht."

Leia pursed her lips. Ben chuckled, knowing what she'd say before the words could form on her tongue. "Well, do you or don't you?"

"We do." Ben stepped forward. "Johnson found compelling evidence that they're using Zoresht as a vetting site for intelligence. We believe that if Poe lets something slip, something the Iranian government considers useful, they'll move him to a black site. We've narrowed it down to three possible military installations. All over an hours drive from Tehran. We can hit the transport en route. Get in and out before anyone realizes we were there."

Leia nodded. "We'd need an inside line to the prison. A way to tell Poe to give something up."

"I have one," Rey said. "Plutt has people within the military and at least one inside Zoresht. If we play it correctly, he won't know his instructions didn't come from Plutt."

"What's our timeline?" Leia asked.

Rey glanced at Ben. She was passing the floor back to him. Would wonders never cease?

"We need to get a message to Poe in the next seventy two hours. His survival window is pretty small. Two weeks at best. They'll execute him if they don't think he's got anything."

Leia didn't like that at all. She didn't want to lose Poe. He was a good man. "And once they decide to move him?"

"We need to be ready to mobilize quickly. We'll have maybe three or four day's lead time."

Leia turned to Amilyn, who was typing furiously on her tablet. Amilyn nodded without looking up. She then made eye contact with Ben, who also nodded - he was behind this plan. Leia examined Rey carefully. The girl's back was straight, eye contact steady, head high.

"You think this will work?"

"I do," Rey replied.

"Good enough for me. You know how to write a proposal?"

"No, but give me an hour and I will."

Leia smiled. "Get Connix to show you. I want it on my desk by the end of today. I'll send Ben back to you when I'm done with him."

Rey's face lit up. Excitement. Determination. Purpose. She would be one hell of an operative one day. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you."

In a rush, Rey spun on her heel and was gone. Ben's smile slipped then as he glanced at Amilyn, waiting for the instruction to come.

"Lock us down," Leia said.

The doors locked, windows went black, and Leia felt the subtle pressure change as the room sealed. All outside data lines were cut. Electromagnetic baffling had been activated. She'd become so highly attuned to it she could hear the faint buzz in the background.

Ben slid into a chair across from her. "So, what was Poe really after? I don't believe for a second this is about a contact list or text messages."

"The job you did in Tehran last year, the one that put Johnson on our radar, that was a fishing trip."

"I remember, though you never told me what you were fishing for."

"Rumor had it an old Imperial had resurfaced. One of the ones who'd gone missing after Palpatine was killed. There was chatter about a deal with the Hutts. We were trying to figure out which Hutt."

"I'm guessing it was Niima."

Leia nodded.

"And the Imperial?"

"Rae Sloane."

Ben nodded. "She was in finance. Knew how to move money, make it disappear. Her books were bullet proof. Didn't she get audited in, like, six different countries?"

"Eight," Amilyn corrected.

"Niima was a pawn for Gallius Rax, but I never knew of any connection she had to the Hutts?"

"Business. We flagged Niima's dealings for closer inspection and we've been watching ever since. Niima's operation has silently become the second strongest faction in the cartel." Leia sighed. "The schism in the Hutt cartel is largely due to differences of opinion on the Empire. The Besadii family were the ones that first made a deal with the Emperor.  Many inside the cartel were unhappy with Jabba Tiuere when he assassinated Gardulla Besadii."

"That's what they do. They kill each other," Ben pointed out.

"Be that as it may, the Empire made them very wealthy, in large part due to Sloane. Between Niima's connection to Rax, her loyalty to Besadii, and the marked uptick in her business since the war ended, we believe she's the one who's been sheltering Sloane."

Ben sat back in his chair. "This is the part where you tell me why we went back to Tehran ten months later."

"Unkar Plutt. The documents you took possession of last year were from a paper archive the Iranian's are keeping. They think if it's not digital it'll be harder to steal."

"Obviously not."

"Obviously," Leia continued. "It took him a while to put the pieces together but Plutt realized where the information had come from. He shuffled his people around, got someone into the room with those documents. Instead of trying to get the paperwork out, he thought it would be more expedient to take pictures of the documents with a cell phone."

"Except?"

Leia chuckled. "The age-old problem."

Ben nodded. "Greed."

"His inside man figured out what he had. Decided Plutt wasn't paying him enough for his hard work. He tried to blackmail Plutt for more."

"Dead body?"

Leia nodded. "He left the device to someone else in Plutt's organization. Someone he trusted. That idiot tried to start a bidding war on the dark web. Now everyone wants a piece of the data. The Iranian's want it back. Plutt's looking for it. The Hutts are looking for it."

"And the Imperials are probably looking for it," Ben added.

"What's left of them."

"Do we know what's on the phone?"

Leia shook her head. "Not really. At the very least it's got to do with the Empire's former dealings in Iran. As a nuclear power, there were a few less-than-savory projects that flowed through the region during Palpatine's time."

Ben tensed. "You don't think—"

"We don't know. We need to find that phone before anyone else does."

"What about Mexico City?"

"Ematt can handle the Crimson Dawn. He'll go in as you, get the intel, destabilize the cartels, problem solved. You debrief him this afternoon."

Ben's eyes narrowed. "You were never going to send Poe."

"I considered it." The best lies were based in the truth. She had considered it - for about five seconds - before disregarding it as a terrible idea. Poe was too hot headed for a job like that. He would have waved that bravado around and there would bullets flying inside an hour. Ben could at least pretend to be calm when he wanted to be. Ematt was the next best choice. A seasoned veteran from the old days. It wasn't even a difficult decision. She'd never tell her son that, though.

"And the proposal?"

"The girls can handle it. Connix can be a brat but Johnson's gotta learn, at some point, to follow."

"You're playing with fire, mother."

Leia smirked. "How do you figure?"

"That girl will eat Kay alive."

"That's the plan, kiddo. A young buck shows up, nipping at her heels, and Connix has to step up her game or get steam-rolled."

Ben smiled. "My money's on Johnson."

 

* * *

 

Poe woke again in his cell, his body aching from days of interrogation. The Iranians were smart. They didn't let him sleep for more than a few hours at a time - someone always came by to rattle the bars of his cage until he woke up. He'd found himself on the receiving end of two ice baths now. He was building a new appreciation for what Ben suffered through. He never wanted to be woken up that way again.

As he always did, Poe listened to his surroundings before he opened his eyes. They had a screamer in interrogation today. Blood curdling shouts ran through the prison, as much of an incentive to the other prisoners as the torture itself. It was a less-than-subtle reminder that they all had it coming soon enough.

There was a careful balance that needed to be maintained when being tortured. He'd been trained to withstand physical pain. Sitting through it unfazed would give away that he'd received training so he had to pretend it was having a greater effect on him than it did. His captors went easier on him in the hopes of keeping him from passing out and he maintained a greater level of control over the situation. The problem was one of timing. The longer he stayed, the weaker his body got. He couldn't keep it up forever. He needed a way out before his body gave out on him. At this rate, he could make it about a month before any attempt to break out would be too taxing for him.

The screaming in the background subsided and a new sound filtered through. Weeping. Poe shifted, going through the motions of waking, grunting and moaning. Testing his limbs for pain. His right foot was throbbing from a cut on his heel but, as long as he didn't run a fever, then it wasn't infected. The weeping persisted and Poe realized it was coming from George's cell.

"George?"

The other prisoner sniffled.

"What is wrong my friend?"

"Nothing."

Poe saw that George was huddled deep in his cell. George Carver was coming up on two weeks of daily torture. His mind was starting to fracture. The initial spark of hope he'd felt at meeting an English speaking prisoner had begun to flicker under the intense routine. Poe needed to keep George strong if there was any hope of recruiting his help in an escape.

"Solitude can do terrible things to a man's mind." Poe scooted to the edge of the bars, propping himself against the wall. "Talk to me, my friend. Tell me what is on your mind."

George's sobs began anew. "I can't."

"Are you afraid?"

"'Course I'm afraid," George spat. "I'm never gonna get out this place. I'm gonna die here. I'll never see my family again."

"You must hang onto hope. Think of your family. Picture them in your mind. Tell yourself you will see them again and if you believe you will, then you will."

"What if I don't? What if I never see them again? It's all I can think about."

"Think of them anyway," Poe insisted. "If you die, then you will have them with you in the end. They will give you strength to face the darkness. You can do this George Carver."

George snorted. It was an ugly, self-pitying sound. "Do you have a family, Emil?"

_"Ja."_ Poe let out a heavy sigh. The alias was an older one, co-opted from a deceased German soldier. The real Emil Stroman was survived by a family of three. "My wife, Sofie, and my daughters, Mathilde and Valeska. Mathilde just finished university. She wants to become a physicist and discover the secrets of the universe. My little one, Valeska, she's thirteen." Poe chuckled. "She wants to be a poet. A warrior poet she tells me. To write the stories of those who cannot speak for themselves."

George creeped closer to the bars of his cell, his crying ceased. Poe could see he'd been at it for some time. His eyes were bloodshot, the rims a bright red. There were clean streaks down his cheeks, cutting through the layers of caked on blood and filth.

"Did you see them? Before you left?" George closed his swollen fingers around the bars of his cell. "Did you see your little girls?" His voice cracked.

"I did."

George moaned. If heartbreak had a voice, that's what it would sound like. Training could only prepare Poe for so much, but he'd never been able to break away from his humanity the way some of his peers had. He still felt very strongly for people. It was what kept him going. He cared about humanity. Cared about the monsters that tried to prey on the weak. No amount of training could have hardened him against the cries of a man who was on the verge of giving up.

"Tell me about them, George. Tell me of your family."

"There's nothing to tell," he wailed. "They're gone. My parents died when I was a kid. My daddy was a soldier. Fought in the first Persian Gulf War. Momma was in the reserves. The war took her, too. Afghanistan. When she got deployed I lived with my granmamma, but she died when I was in high school."

Poe fought to keep his reaction under control. It was a common story in the US. The battles in the Middle East weren't what people imagined. They weren't wars for sovereignty or freedom or oil. They were flames stoked by the Empire. A bid to fracture this world so Palpatine could rise and take control. He'd nearly done it too, if not for the Alliance. If not for people like Poe's parents, who'd both given their lives to the cause.

"And now? Is there no one in your life that you can go home to?"

George's sobs grew quieter. He was drawing in on himself. There was someone waiting for George Carver but the nature of his retreat made Poe realize that whoever it was, it was complicated. They sat in silence for several minutes, Poe letting the moment hang, letting George linger on whatever thoughts consumed him. Memories were often a powerful motivator. He had to give them time to take purchase before he pressed further.

"George?"

George sniffled. "Yeah?"

"Is there someone?"

"You ever regret anything, Emil?"

_"Ja."_ Poe could think of a great many things he regretted.

"I have a son. A boy I never knew. I took an assignment in South Africa. It made my career, but his momma begged me not to go. Said if I took off, she wouldn't be there when I got back. She wasn't. I didn't find out until my baby was five that he even existed. She begged me to stay away. She was married; he knew the baby wasn't his, but my boy didn't. He'd only known one father in his life. It would have torn him to pieces to be told otherwise, so I stayed away." George began gasping for breath, heaving in his grief. "I just keep asking myself, over and over again, did I do the right thing? Did I walk away because it was good for him, or good for me? And if I make it out alive, do I go to him? Do I tell him the truth? I wanna see him so bad, Emil. I wanna know my boy."

A fist clamped down over Poe's heart. "George, listen to me—"

A door at the far end of the hall banged open, echoing down the corridor. Boots stomped toward them before two men in military uniforms appeared at the edge of Poe's vision. George wailed, falling into a heap as he sobbed. Poe scurried back from the bars as one of the men turned to his cell, raising his semi-automatic rifle and shouting at them to be quiet.  Poe held up his hands, assuming a non threatening posture.

The man continued to shout, demanding silence or he would shoot them both. Poe had to pretend he had no idea what the man was saying. He kept himself low to the ground, eyes averted, hands up.

_"Areh,"_ Poe said, quietly.

The soldier banged the muzzle of his rifle against the bars and Poe flinched for effect. Seconds later they were gone again. Poe slid back to the bars and waited for the doors to close.

"Are you alright?" he whispered.

George sat up, nodding vigorously.

"They won't be back for a couple of hours," Poe whispered. "We should try to get some sleep before they return."

 

* * *

 

Her first month in the Alliance, Rey had spent all her time at the bottom of the Pit looking up at the gallery. The last five days she had spent in the gallery looking down at the Pit. Workers scurried along each of the tiers, finishing up post-op reports, preparing for new assignments, doing research. She knew all their names, had listened to their stories. These were the people who had saved the world and she was one of them.

Not too long ago, she was stealing, grifting and sleeping on a dirt floor, if she slept at all. Now, she had a home, a job and more money than she'd ever imagined laying claim to. She had a purpose greater than just survival. It was strange how one bad thing could lead to so much good. One morning, she woke up with a fistful of shipping schedules, prepared to make a deal that would buy her a few meals. By nightfall, she was running for her life from Plutt's men. She never found out why they wanted her dead. If it hadn't been for Nazreen, she'd never have made it out of the country.

Amilyn touched her shoulder. "You ready?"

Rey nodded.

"Kay," Amilyn called.

The blonde looked up from her desk, her hair pulled into a pair of knots on either side of her head, a pen sticking out of each one. Rey shook her head. Kay was a pen thief.

"Be up in a second," Kay replied.

Amilyn nodded toward the conference room, smiling warmly. "Don't be nervous."

She wasn't nervous, she was torn. They had a good plan. Amilyn had already started the ball rolling on an extraction team and they were ready to deliver their message to Poe. The final item was a negotiation with the Yateem. Rey was tasked with updating their files, coordinating with Signal Intelligence in Mon Cala, and briefing the team. All she had to do was walk into that conference room and spill every secret she knew about the people who'd saved her life.

Ben and Leia were already inside, huddled together. Ben's eyes followed Rey through the room while Leia whispered in his ear. She hadn't known what it meant at the time, but painting that car had put her on his radar. Most people didn't want to be on Ben Solo's radar. Rey always thought it might be useful to make a good impression on the boss' son, even if he was an insufferable prick most days.

He'd been rather keen with his attention the last few days. It wasn't just the proximity. He was watching her, deconstructing her. Trying to figure out what made her tick. It was mildly unsettling. A bully she could deal with, but Ben's attention was bordering on voyeuristic.

She reached the head of the room, forcing Ben to turn and face her. The smile on his face was predatory. She'd come to realize it was fake – part of his act. They all did it. Kay played the ditzy airhead. Leia and Amilyn were good cop, bad cop. Even Rey. She was developing a reputation as a hard ass, so she played the part. Ben played the monster. Whichever monster got under your skin.

Kay came through the door seconds later, everyone in the room turning to look at her. Everyone but Ben. Rey met his intense gaze with a stony resolve. He might be unsettling her, but she wasn't going to show it.

"Let's get this party started," Leia said.

Rey turned to Amilyn and nodded. The screen behind her lit up with a map of the region, each overlaid with the holdings of all the local criminal organizations.

"Three years ago, during a protest march against the Ayatollah, Hutt cartel members disguised as military personnel fired on a crowd of demonstrators outside a warehouse in District Nine. The warehouse belonged to Unkar Plutt. Some of Plutt's men were killed in the conflict. In particular, two men from the Jahani family, Arash and Shahin. The woman I called, Nazreen Jahani, was their mother."

Rey turned toward the screen, looking up at the faces of her dead friends. They'd grown up together, broken bread, drank tea and talked about where they'd be in ten years. Rey would be alive. They would be dead.

"The Jahani's were a critical part of Plutt's operation. They had the support of the community, the love of the people and dozens of legitimate businesses through which Plutt funneled his black market dealings. In the weeks that followed, tensions between Plutt and Niima would ramp up, in parallel to increased demonstrations against the regime. By the end of the conflict, a total of seven members of the Jahani family were dead. This was the beginning of the Yateem."


	4. Chapter 4

"Who am I speaking with?" Nazreen asked in her careful, measured tone.

Ben affected a thick cockney accent. "Collin Bellamy, I worked with your fella Keyvan while I was passing through last year."

"Ah yes. I remember you."

"Then you remember I pay me debts."

"I remember you butchered our language."

Ben laughed, glancing at the woman in the chair next to him. Rey pursed her lips. The conference room was silent as a pin as Amilyn, Leia and Kay looked on.

"I been practicing. You wanna hear?"

Nazreen also laughed. There was a richness to it. Ben liked the sound of her laughter. Rey was certainly smiling. He wondered how well these two women knew each other. It was obvious there was some deeper connection between them.

"I think we should keep this conversation in English so there will be no confusion of terms," Nazreen said finally, the richness of her laughter still coloring her voice.

"So long as you're happy, I'm happy. What can we do to thank you for your help?"

"Our first request—"

"You've got a list, have you?" Ben interrupted.

Rey shook her head, whispering. "Don't interrupt her again."

Ben nodded his understanding.

"Is that a problem?" There was a subtle pitch change in her voice. The hint of a threat.

"Not at all, _khanom-e_ Jahani. My apologies."

"Nice save," Rey whispered.

"Our first request is simple. We prefer to know with whom we are dealing."

Ben inhaled sharply, sucking the air through his teeth to be sure Nazreen heard the intention clearly. "You know the way the game works. I can't tell ya that, but I can promise we're not affiliated with any government that supports the Ayatollah's regime."

"And I am supposed to take your word for this? That is not how the game works."

Ben glanced at Rey. "Alright. Then ask yourself, would your girl, Partow, align herself with any entity that would seek to harm you, your people, or your mission?"

Nazreen laughed again. "That is a question I have been asking myself for some time now. Where is my Partow? Who has claimed her? Is she free?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Ben nodded at Rey. He noticed the subtle tremor in her hand as she hit the button to unmute her line.

_"Salam, Nazreen joon,"_ Rey said softly. Ben noted the use of the word 'joon' on the end. It indicated a level of familiarity, possibly even affection between them.

_"My sunlight,"_ Nazreen said, switching to Farsi. _"Here is my second request: tell me you are free. Convince me that you have chosen this master."_

_"I have. I am happy here. The man we're trying to save is a good man. He has done good work in this world."_

_"Then why was he meeting with one of Unkar Plutt's rats?"_

Ben noted the subtle line of tension in Rey's shoulders. She hid it well, but he'd been doing this work for years. When she looked up at him for confirmation he nodded.

_"We needed something only he could give us. If we could have gotten it from you we would have. That is all I can tell you."_

_"Baleh. But you have not convinced me. Your words are written for you. Give me a reason to believe."_

Rey scanned the desk, her eyes searching but focusing on nothing. She was thinking it through. He saw the thought take root and when she scanned the room a second time it was to catalogue all the eyes on her.

_"Do you know what I did this weekend?"_ Rey began. She spoke slowly, carefully, and quietly, bringing an intimacy into her words that had not been there before.

_"Tell me, joon."_

_"Nothing,"_ Rey breathed, a sad smile spreading across her lips. _"I sat in my own apartment and I read. No one bothered me. No one stopped me. I was not afraid that the police would come and take me or that I wouldn't have enough to eat or that I wouldn't be safe as I slept. That life that we talked about as children, the one Arash and I dreamed of? I'm living it now."_

Ben understood so many things in that moment. He knew she'd grown up abandoned on the streets of Tehran. Knew the circumstances of her parent's execution, but a dossier can only tell you so much about the quality of a person's life. Rey Johnson had grown up in fear. Fear for her next meal. Fear for her safety. Fear of finding safe shelter. Fear of falling asleep. Ben understood all too well what it felt like to be afraid of sleeping.

_"Then you are walking free?"_ Nazreen asked.

Rey chuckled, catching Ben's eye. _"No, azizam. I'm flying."_

It was a trick question. If Rey had answered 'yes', no one but Nazreen would have known it was the wrong answer. A subtle tell that her words were a lie and her conversation was being forced. Rey had done it to ensure Nazreen's trust. More than that, she'd called Nazreen 'azizam', another term of endearment. She'd named dropped her son. There was definitely a mutual affection between these women.

"Very well," Nazreen said, returning to English. "I am convinced. We require a dozen of your drones, and the technology to operate them.

Ben tracked between Leia and Amilyn, waiting for confirmation. Amilyn nodded once, not looking up from her tablet. Ben glanced at Rey, who also nodded. The go-ahead to take over the conversation again.

"Done. You'll have your drones in the next few days. I was wonderin' how would you like to really piss off the state?"

"I was curious if you would ask. What is it you want, truly?"

"We want our man back."

"I see. And you would like us to retrieve him for you?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

"It is not possible to successfully retrieve prisoners from Zoresht. If we could, we would have freed our own."

"We have it on good authority our man won't be in Zoresht for long."

"Then he is a valuable asset." Ben didn't like that Nazreen knew that. It meant they'd known all along what was going on inside the prison. It didn't bode well that the Alliance were the last to know. "That will bear a greater cost and we will not do it alone."

"We are prepared to support you with whatever you need."

Nazreen let out that musical laugh again. "We will require your assistance on the ground. We will not spill our blood alone on this errand."

Leia was already nodding before Ben looked up. "That's a fair deal. You send us your list and the best approach for this mission and we'll let you know when we're coming."

"No. You will arrive to discuss the situation with us in person. I trust Partow. I do not trust you."

"I pay my debts."

"The last time you were here, you paid your debt before you collected your items. You will do so again and you will leave Tehran without speaking to Plutt. Those are our terms."

Every eye in the room turned to Leia. After a long moment, considering, she nodded.

"Give us three days and we'll reach out. We'll pick the time, you pick the place. I'll send someone round to confirm."

"Do not come back to my place of business," Nazreen warned. "We will find you. _Khodahafez._ "

The line went dead and everyone in the room let out the breath they'd been holding. It wasn't over yet.

"I've just confirmed with Lando's team. They have the spare drones," Amilyn informed them. "They can have them wiped, retrofitted, and ready to ship by morning."

Kay, who had been silent from the moment she walked through the door finally spoke up. "I have three Agents in the region that we could use. Antilles, Seastriker and Orrelios."

"Wedge or Zeb," Ben said. "Don't put Seastriker anywhere near this one. He'll make a mess."

"We're not sending in another pod," Leia said. "There's already too much at stake to keep adding variables."

Ben felt Rey tense next to him. He hoped Leia wasn't about to say what he thought she might say. After the way Rey had left the region it would be a terrible idea to send her back out there.

"Ben will go."

"What?" He chided himself for not being in better control of his reaction. Leia had a tendency of blindsiding him in the way only a mother could. He needed to turn it around. "I thought I was benched? I don't even have a handler." He leaned back in his chair, affecting an unruffled demeanor and allowing his words to drip with sarcasm.

"Yeah?" Leia cocked an eyebrow. She wasn't buying the act. "Your time's up on finding one. You want me to pull your field commission, cause I can do that instead?"

Ben rolled his eyes. It was a bluff. They were playing the game. Leia's priorities had changed and it had nothing to do with Poe's disappearance. She wanted something different out of Ben than she had two days ago. He needed to figure out what.

"Poe got himself captured. You can't punish me for helping. I should get an extension." He smiled the patented Solo smile.

Amilyn and Kay were used to this sort of exchange, but Ben caught the look of bewilderment on Rey's face at the complete change in tone. He wondered who's benefit it was for.

"I'll consider it, after you get back from Tehran with my Agent," Leia replied.

She hadn't changed terms, so she either wanted him in Tehran or she wanted him back in the field. He still didn't know why, though.

"My biometrics are all screwed up. Ask Ams. I won't be cleared for duty for at least three more days."

"You'll manage."

_Interesting._ "Alright then. Johnson stays on as consultant. We need her intel."

"Yes, we do. She's going to help you complete Poe's mission. We still need Plutt's package."

"With all due respect—" Rey began.

"Save it," Leia cut her off. "I know you care about these people, but we're giving them what they asked for. They don't get to decide if we complete our mission and Nazreen knew that. She threw it out there as a warning so it'll be your job to make sure she doesn't find out. Clear?"

Rey gave not an ounce of emotion away as she nodded. This was a test. Leia wanted to know where the new kid's loyalty was but it still didn't explain what Leia wanted from him.

"And my handler?"

"Kay's done it before, she'll do it again. It's still her mission and she has to make it up to me."

"Yes, ma'am," Kay said.

Ben bobbed his head from side to side, pretending to consider it while Leia waited patiently for the answer they both knew he would give. Always playing the game.

"Alright. Johnson, I want you to find me a way to get in touch with Poe's contact that doesn't involve face time. Connix, prep the Bellamy alias. We'll play this one high visibility. The Yateem are going to reach out to the recon team. I want a three sixty view. We should see them coming. I want to know how they find us and when. Holdo—"

"I already let Lando know." She looked up at him with a smile. "He'll have it ready for you."

"That's why I love you best." Ben stood. "I'm going to have a chat with the Tico sisters."

Ben stepped out of the door and began counting backwards from ten. He got to four.

"Ben!"

He smiled. "Walk with me. What do you need?" Though he already knew the answer.

"My contacts in Tehran are mostly with the Yateem. Our break with Plutt wasn't exactly amicable. It will be nearly impossible for me to find an angle on this without tipping them off."

Ben steered closer to her, dropping his voice. "Only, I know that's not true. You never left Plutt's organization. You were a mole for the Yateem. Plutt's people were all over the lakeside which is why I couldn't go near it. The only way you got in and out without arousing suspicion was if you were working for Plutt. When my contact turned up dead a week later I knew you'd sold him out."

Rey cocked an eyebrow. "That's an interesting theory."

They stopped in front of research and development and Ben scanned in. He put a hand on the wall beside her, leaning in until her back was against the wall. "My mother is testing you. Get me a clean line to Poe's contact and that information never makes it into your file. If it goes sideways, I'll have no choice but to tell her."

She held his gaze with the same brass balls she had during the Yateem briefing. This was not a woman who was bowed by threats. "That's assuming she doesn't already know."

They stood locked in their silent battle for a long time. She was proving a tougher nut to crack than he'd thought. None of his usual tactics were working. There had to be a soft spot in her armor somewhere and he was determined to find it.

"Were you raised in a barn? Come in or don't, but don't leave my door open."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ben could see Paige peeking out into the hall. Rey turned to look. Ben didn't. They weren't done with their conversation. Until they were, Rey had his full attention. She looked back at him.

"Fine," Rey conceded, rolling her eyes.

"If you're done flirting, please come in or I will lock you out for the rest of the day," Paige warned.

_Flirting_ , Ben thought. _Now there's an idea_. He didn't move, forcing Rey to scoot sideways against the wall until she was clear of him. He smiled. It was time to start rattling her cage and see what shook loose.

 

* * *

 

Poe woke to the sound of banging against the bars of his cell. This time, when he rose it wasn't an act. Everything hurt. The guard kept banging until he got up on his knees with his hands out. A slew of insults poured from the guard's mouth, all of which Poe pretended he didn't understand.

The guard leaned against the bars, leering in at Poe, gave the bars and final clank, and stormed off. Poe kept his eyes affixed to the floor, to the spot at the man's feet where a tiny slip of paper had fallen into Poe's cell. When he heard the unseen door bang shut, he inched forward, palming the scrap of paper.

"George?"

There was no response. Hazy light spilled in from an unseen window. Not the streaks of the setting sun but the halo of sunrise on the far side of the building. He'd been inside for eight days with no better chance of escaping now than he'd had on day one. George was deteriorating quickly. Two weeks was a long time for a civilian to withstand this kind of punishment. It was a miracle he'd lasted that long.

"George?"

Poe squinted into the cell, almost certain now that there was no one in the cell. He looked around, as certain as he could be that no one was watching before unfolding the paper and angling it towards the only light source. On it was a single word written in rushed capital letters, 'BREADCRUMB'. That one word cleared the cobwebs from his mind, chased away the aches and pains. They were coming for him. He wasn't sure when, or how, but Leia had a plan. All he needed to do was leave a breadcrumb.

He crawled into the back corner of his cell and shoved the paper in his mouth, holding it under his tongue as long he could before swallowing it. It was dry and bitter going down, still, nothing had ever tasted so sweet.

 

* * *

 

Rey raced across the tarmac, loose strands of hair pulling free of her ponytail, and whipping across her face in the roar of the engines. The plane stood still, chocks still holding the landing tires in place. She climbed the steps into the cabin and scanned the empty compartment.

"Hello?" she called.

Ben was supposed to have boarded already. She checked the rear. He wasn't in the toilet, or kitchenette, or storage. Where the hell had he gone? She traversed the cabin again, peeking back out onto the tarmac. Alliance employees scurried about making the final preparations for takeoff. She stepped back into the passenger compartment and wondered.

An arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her against a long torso. Warm breath on her neck sent her skin prickling.

"Did you come to give me a goodbye kiss?" Ben breathed into her neck.

Rey covered his broad hand where it rested flat against her stomach, took a firm grip on his index finger, and pulled back. In seconds, she had his arm behind his back and his face pressed into the nearest table. He grunted when his face hit the cold wood.

"I'll take that as a no," he chuckled.

She reached into her back pocket and set the tiny kit at eye level. The vials and syringe clearly visible through the plastic baggie. "You forgot your meds."

Ben's nose wrinkled at the sight of them. "Forgot is a strong word."

Rey released him and he made a show of rolling the shoulder she'd twisted. It wasn't necessary, she hadn't pulled it that hard. "You forgot something else too." She held up the black ring he normally wore on his left index finger.

He glanced at his hand. "Now, I'm impressed."

"You know you can't take this with you."

"I genuinely forgot," he said. "Give it to my mother, will you? She'll hang on to it."

She pulled the chain from around her neck, her silver Faravahar icon hanging from the end. Ben reached for it, examining the winged symbol. "Do you adhere to the Zoroastrian faith?"

"The faith? No, but there are good tenets."

"Then why wear it?"

Rey's eyes narrowed for a second. _Oh, what the hell_ , she thought. "It was a gift from my father when I was a girl. This was the only possession I managed to keep when I fled Iran." Rey slipped the ring onto the chain and pulled it back over her head, tucking into her blouse. The ring was colder than she expected against her skin.

"On second thought, you hang onto it. I know it will be in good hands."

Rey rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really don't want to be on this flight when it takes off."

Ben turned sideways, leaving just enough room for her to slip past him. She was nearly clear when he grabbed her arm. She glanced down at his hand.

"Are we going to do this again?"

"I didn't get my kiss." She gave him the finger and he smiled. "Is that an insult or are you making a to-do list?"

"Not in your wildest dreams, Solo."

She pulled her arms free and he let her go easily enough, following her to the exit.

"If I had those kinds of dreams I wouldn't need the drugs, would I?"

Rey paused halfway down the steps. Amilyn had warned her about Ben's night terrors. Rey was going to be covering a few of the later shifts during downtime. It was why she'd been tasked with bringing him his meds. There was something in the way he said it, a note of bitterness that made her wonder. Best to leave it be.

"Safe travels! Don't blow my city up." She waved, hitting the tarmac and not looking back.

 

* * *

 

Kay waited as Ben played tourist. It was part of the Collin Bellamy alias: lots of flash, money, and that ridiculous car Lando gave him. The TIE Silencer, a special line Maserati. Ben drove it like he was racing the Indie 500. The whole thing was a misdirection. The louder he was in the alias, the less likely anyone would be to notice him when he dropped it. She had to give him that. He could blend into a crowd when he wanted. Unfortunately, Bellamy was as annoying a character as Ben was an agent.

The one bright spot in all this was Rey. She didn't put up with his bullshit. Every time he flirted with the natives she reminded him that this was an Islamic country and he couldn't just pick up a girl off the street. Every time he mispronounced something she corrected his Farsi. Rey was taking all the heat which meant Kay could sit back and focus on getting Poe back in one piece.

"Do not put that in your mouth," Rey spat.

Kay glanced at the window in the corner of her screen displaying the view from Ben's optics. He bit down on a green chili. In seconds, the capsaicin hit his tongue and his vitals spiked. Locals at nearby tables laughed at him while he made a show of how spicy it was.

"I told you so," Rey said.

"He's acting," Kay said into the comms. She knew he liked spicy food. When she'd been his handler, he'd once eaten a curry so hot it made her eyes water from across the table. Like clockwork, he dipped his eyes to his hand and tapped the word 'yes' into the table. "See."

The waiter brought him a yogurt drink to cool his mouth. His optics showed him scanning the busy street as he drank it, eyes darting rapidly around, taking in every detail. He was moving so fast Kay had to look away before she got motion sickness. Rey hovered close to her screen, watching intently as his gaze traveled. They'd moved her to a spare terminal in the second tier. She'd be on babysitting duty for Ben during the overnights and she needed access to software that wasn't available in the trenches.

_They're fucking made for each other,_ Kay thought. In a few years, they'd likely be terrorizing the whole world side by side. Agents were crazy that way. Too many lies. Too many secrets. Too many bullets. Kay was more than happy sitting at her desk, collecting her astronomically large paycheck and sleeping with the pretty ones. At least, running ops, she knew the boys would always call her back. Someone always needed a favor, eventually.

An alert popped up on Kay's screen. "It's time!" She dialed Ben's cell phone.

He pretended he wasn't expecting the call and fished lazily in his pocket, whining as he looked at the screen, but immediately changing his tone when he answered. "Hello, darling," he said in his annoying cockney. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Goods have been delivered. I've uploaded the address to your car. You have forty-seven minutes."

"Already, luv?" Ben paused, checking his watch like he was confirming a dinner date. "I'll be right over."

"Over and out," Kay said.

Twenty-four minutes later, he'd pulled into his hotel to change. Twenty-nine minutes later, he exited the hotel through a rear service entrance in a disguise even Leia might have trouble identifying him in. Forty-six minutes later, he knocked twice on the front door of a normal looking house, on a normal looking street, in a normal looking neighborhood.

Two men answered the door, smiling and greeting him like they were old friends. Kay watched as his eyes swept the room, hesitating on points of interest he wanted her to follow up on. Hallways, other parties, possible locations of hidden weapons, doors and windows. There were a dozen men and women gathered in a modern looking living room, dressed casually and drinking tea.

"Would you like a tea?" a woman offered.

"Yes, thank you," Ben replied, in his sub-par Farsi, taking a seat with the others. They'd prepared for this. Pleasantries would be exchanged before the conversation was taken somewhere more private.

Rey seemed to be enjoying the whole thing. She fed a steady stream of information to Ben as they talked, giving details about the people in the room she knew, guiding him through conversations and pointing out the little details of Persian etiquette. Unlike his brash Bellamy personality, Ben was playing the polite house guest – reserved, interested, and eager to please. Everyone in the room knew what he was, but they all pretended just the same.

After half an hour, the invite came to move the conversation to a quiet place. Kay leaned forward in her seat as they proceeded down a mundane-looking hall into a lavish kitchen and down the steps into a quiet basement. Four of their recon team were taking tea with an older man.

"That's her father, Elyar Jahani," Rey said immediately. "He's responsible for breaking away from Plutt."

"Whose father?" Kay asked as Ben greeted the older man with extreme deference.

"Nazreen's," Rey replied.

It clicked then. The woman had given her name as Roshan, but she was really Rey's contact, Nazreen. Ben had been paying special attention to her the whole conversation, deferring to her when she spoke, offering to pour for her when her tea ran out. Kay thought it was just the usual flirting, but it hadn't been. She was the ringleader and Kay had missed it.

"You could have warned me," Kay said, letting more irritation show than she probably should have. She chalked it up to stress.

"I'm sorry," Rey replied. She even seemed to mean it, though you could never tell in this game. "I thought—" She shook her head. "Sorry."

"Are we ready to begin?"

 

* * *

 

"Dinner?" Kay asked.

"Dinner," Rey confirmed. "It would be very rude if they invited guests over and didn't feed them. No self-respecting Persian would do such a thing."

"They aren't guests.They're unknown, highly trained agents. Who the hell has dinner with possible enemy combatants?"

"Persians," Rey replied.

Kay didn't give a shit about any of it. Thankfully, they'd switched to English so she could roughly the follow the conversation without having to read the translations. She'd gotten through a good chunk of her reporting by the time everyone had finished their tea. She prayed no Iranian ever invited her to dinner. Their food looked weird and she couldn't stand the thought of being stuck in that environment for two hours.

Ben made his excuses for leaving and Nazreen showed him to the door.

"I have something for you. A gift from Partow." Ben reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a slim paperback. Nazreen's eyes widened when she saw it. Kay had to skim through the requisition list to identify it. Some book of Persian poetry.

"Mashallah!" Nazreen said in a tone that sounded almost maternal. The strange interjection was an expression of joy at seeing the book. She patted Ben on the cheek. "You thank her for me. Send all my love. And if you hurt her, we will hunt you down like animals."

"I think she'll beat you to it," Ben chuckled.

Nazreen patted his cheek again. "I'm certain she will."

There was a lengthy round of goodbyes that had Kay grinding her teeth. It took him another twenty minutes to pick his way back to the hotel but as soon as the door closed behind him, Kay jumped out of her seat.

"Mission accomplished. Time to get some sleep. Good job everyone."

"Same old Connix. Always in a rush." Ben threw his jacket onto the mattress and stared into the bathroom mirror so she could see him shaking his head. "It's why you miss the obvious."

"As much as I've missed these lovely little teaching moments with you, Ben… oh wait... I don't miss them." She collected her possessions from her desk, hand hovering over the button that would end the call and thought of one last dig. "Sweet dreams."

"Fuck you too," he replied.


	5. Chapter 5

Ben's phone chirped on the nightstand. He reached out from the bed where he'd not been sleeping to check the message. The transfer was set. It would go down the following night. He prayed Poe could stick it out one more day. There was a second message from Rey. She'd set a meeting for the evening after the op. He frowned, reaching out to the nightstand for his earpiece.

She picked up immediately. "Control. This is Johnson."

"What the hell are you still doing there? It's after four in the morning."

"What the hell are you doing up? You should be asleep."

Ben put his arm behind his head and settled in. It was time to start rattling. "I asked first."

"I took the overnight watch."

"Lando's people could have babysat me for a few hours," he chuckled. "Why'd you really take this watch?"

"I still have research to do. It's going to bother me all night," she sighed. "And Kay rushed out of here so quickly, half of it still isn't done."

"So you're a workaholic?"

"That's hysterical coming from you."

"You been reading up on me, Johnson?"

She snickered. "I have eyes, Solo. You're not the only one who uses them."

"And what have you learned about me?"

"That you're an insufferable arsehole, but not half as much as you pretend to be."

"That sounds like a compliment."

"Take it however you like."

Ben chuckled. "You have a great voice, Johnson. I could listen to it all night."

"Oh god," Rey choked. "Tell me you're not actually flirting with me."

"And if I was?"

"I'd tell you to save it for the marks. I've read your file."

"Then you know what I'm good at."

"I know you're wasting your time."

He dropped his voice, taking his time as he spoke. "Am I? You're not even a little curious?"

"No," Rey snorted.

"I think you're lying."

"I'm really not."

"You sound like you're lying."

"For pity's sake."

He could picture the way she rolled her eyes. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't," she chuckled. "I don't know what you think you're playing at but it won't work on me, Solo. Go to sleep."

"Only if you read me a bedtime story. Preferably in Farsi."

"Goodnight." The line went dead.

He knew if he reactivated the comm channel she'd have to pick it up. It was protocol. Technically, she shouldn't have hung up on him at all, but it hadn't exactly been an emergency. He toyed with the idea for a few minutes before deciding against it. There would be plenty of time for that later. Two more months before she was eligible to transfer to Relay. She'd probably pass her test on the first try. He predicted a subtle uptick in his reliance on mid-op drops after her transition, if only to get under her skin.

Ben dumped his earpiece back onto the bedside table and returned to his ruminating. He still hadn't worked out what Leia wanted from him. The mission had gone smoothly so far. There didn't seem to be any obvious reason for sending him. It was starting to frustrate him that he couldn't figure it out. He was missing something obvious. It took half an hour of going over the same possibilities before he gave up. He needed more data. Needed her to slip up and show her hand. Needed something.

It was a long shot, but he could try to sleep. With the assignment not starting until the following evening and Johnson as his babysitter, he could afford to take the sedatives. He'd give himself half the normal dose. Worst case, he could call Rey back and ask her to sing him a lullaby. That should set her off. He let his mind wander and after a long while, it finally drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Kay sighed heavily. Rey – who wasn't even supposed to be on this op – had been asking questions for over an hour. Leia had cleared her to sit in as a learning experience. She was so green that she didn't fully understand the difference between their three types of field commissions. With their teams in place, out of sight of the road, there was nothing to do but wait for the prison transport to arrive. Kay watched the tiny blip on her map move steadily closer to the ambush point. It wasn't moving fast enough.

"That's why it's the easiest commission to get," Jaldine continued. "Their job is to stay away from the shit, not get into it."

Rey nodded from her new spot in the second tier. Kay watched over Rey's shoulder as she pulled up information about the Alliance's military structure on her spare screen, comparing it to the roster of operatives on the ground.

"But you're an Operative," Rey said, scanning the structural breakdown. "And Ben's an Agent. Why the separation? What does an Agent do that a lone operative can't?"

Ben snorted, glancing at the woman in the driver's seat of their vehicle before turning his attention back to the road. "I'd love to hear your explanation, Gerams." A round of chuckles came from behind Ben.

From the central column in the pit, Jaldine's optics picked up her backward glance at the four operatives in rear of her vehicle, their tactical gear covered up by the local attire. They were supposed to look like Yateem. Jaldine's heads-up display identified each Operative by their call sign, and their designation on this mission as Alpha Team.

Blue Squadron was their best extraction team. Five of them were in vehicle one with Blue Three, Jaldine Gerams. Bravo Team were five more on the opposite side of the highway with Blue Leader, Antoc Merrick. Blue Eight and Blue Eleven were their eyes on the Yateem groups, Charlie and Delta, further down the road. The Yateem would stall the incoming caravan up the road. The Allies would then come in from behind, extract their people and get the hell out.

"Dick," Jaldine chuckled. "Operatives are our largest cross section of ground forces. We're specialized into teams depending on our skills. Organized more like military personnel than Agents are. Our squadron rolls up to the Massassi Group, led by—"

"Jan Dodonna," Rey interjected. "I see it."

"Agents are a different breed." Jaldine pivoted in her chair, eyeballing Ben. "To be honest, I'm not sure what you pampered pricks do, other than terrorize your handlers."

"For the record," Kay jumped in. "That is an exclusively Solo problem. Other agents are very kind to us. Ben's the only asshole."

"Love you too, Kay-Co," Ben chimed.

Only Poe called her that. "Don't ever fucking call me that again or I will poison you in your sleep." Kay hit the mute button on her line again to a chorus of laughter.

A new voice crackled over the comms. It was Antoc. "So, tell us, Solo, what's so damn special about agents then?"

Kay smelled the trap a mile away. It was time for Ben to hang himself on that arrogance of his. She couldn't wait.

"Nothing," Ben replied, shrugging. "Sometimes it takes an army to do the job. Sometimes the best choice is one good man or woman," he nodded at Jaldine, "with a low profile and a bug in their ear. Poe was here to pick up a sensitive package. That's a job for one man. Dangerous enough that we didn't want to send a Relay. Getting him back, that takes all of us. I'm not special, I just serve a different purpose."

Leia's raspy chuckle carried down from the gallery. "Kiss ass," she muttered.

 _Fucker,_ Kay thought. He'd played them. Saw the trap and side stepped it.

"Well said," Antoc was nodding, his people with him.

"Marker one in sixty seconds," came a call from the trenches.

Kay loaded up their HUDs with the tracking marker for the caravan. They'd focused on Poe's vehicle, which was second in a line of three. The road was dark, the outline barely discernible in the wan moonlight. Light appeared first, dim, but growing brighter. It was quickly followed by the sounds of engines bouncing through the still night air. The vehicles came into view, the various optical displays picking up each vehicle and offering mechanical readouts as they passed.

"Starting timer," Kay said, leaning into her terminal. She watched the HUD pick up the distance calculator. At a half mile, Blue Squadron would move onto the road, their vehicles carefully tuned so that their engines were practically silent and they could run without lights. One mile down the road, the Yateem would strike.

The timer counted down to zero. "Roll out," Antoc ordered.

"Copy," Jaldine replied.

They pulled out onto the road, making their way towards the extraction point. Towards Poe. Kay's heart set about skipping around in her chest. She needed to keep it together. This was her mission. Her success if she got it right. Her failure if it all went wrong. She glanced at Rey, who was sitting on the edge of her seat and thought of Leia's words.

 _One day, that girl is going to be an Agent. Show her what a great handler looks like. Earn her respect and she will work twice as hard to earn yours_.

"Marker two in sixty seconds."

Kay focused on her screen. Ben's vitals and optics were on her left. He was a mess. Not sleeping. Not eating. It was a miracle that man was still alive. A greater miracle that he was so damned good at his job. As much as she loathed him, there wasn't a better choice for getting Poe back. No one would go as far. No one would push as hard. He'd give his life to bring Poe home. It was his only redeeming quality.

"We have visual," Blue Eight said.

She glanced up at the center column as the first lights appeared on the road at the extraction point. The lead vehicle was nearly in position.

"Initiating ROV," a voice in the second tier called.

The first remotely operated SUV peeled off from the roadside, slamming into the first target. They went flying off into the night, lights blinking and going out. The second SUV came from the other direction, plowing into the third target and running it off the road leaving Poe's vehicle alone on the asphalt.

"Contact!" Blue Eleven called, to the report of arms fire. Fourteen Yateem and two Allies swamped their assigned vehicle, tying up any combatants still breathing. Two peeled off from either side, approaching the prisoner transport. It didn't wait for them.

"Target two fleeing. Repeat, target is fleeing."

"Clear the road," Antoc called.

"Clear," Blue Eleven responded.

"Clear," Blue Eight echoed.

Seconds later, the two Blue Squadron vehicles tore past the extraction zone at one hundred sixty kilometers per hour.

"Drones," Kay called.

"Primed," a voice replied from Tier Two.

"Marker three in sixty seconds."

The second target reached the hot zone and two drones swooped down, laying fire on either side of it. It swerved off the road, pulled around and stopped dead.

"Target two. Engine stalled," came a voice from the trenches.

Kay could see that the engines were stalled.

"Inbound, thirty seconds," Antoc replied. His vehicle did not slow, but Jaldine's did.

The stalled vehicle tried to crank their engine, a column of smoke rising from the front hood.

"You hit the engine block, gunner," Kay called.

"Shit," Ben seethed. "Gerams, stop a hundred yards out. We approach on foot. Merrick, stay at two-fifty. Cover us."

"Confirmed," Merrick said.

"Target three neutralized. Charlie team en route to marker three," Blue Eight said.

"Charlie team, stop at two-fifty yards out and hold on the north side of the road. Mirror the Bravo team," Kay ordered.

"Confirmed," Blue Eight replied.

Ben, and the four squad members from the rear, poured out of their vehicle while it was still rolling to a stop.

Kay checked the optics on the Delta team. They were still engaging the enemy, but it didn't look like that would take much longer. "Delta team, when you finish there I want you stay a quarter mile back. You'll be our last hope if this goes ass over teakettle."

"Confirmed," Blue Eleven replied.

No lights, no engines, dark night. The target didn't see them coming. Three men with semi-automatic rifles were standing around the vehicle in what barely passed as a perimeter. A fourth was in the driver's seat, six more heat signatures in the back of the van.

Kay assigned their targets. Each of the four men took their shots. Ben hit the driver through the windshield with a single bullet.

What happened next was pure theatre. All six of the heat signatures were prisoners. The Blue Squadron ushered them out at gunpoint, issuing a sedative to each as they were jostled into the darkness. Before they reached a vehicle they were each out, including Poe. They didn't want the Yateem knowing which one was their agent.

Two of the men were confirmed by the Yateem as their own. Facial recognition told a different story. One of those men belonged to Niima's cartel, which meant either he was a double agent or they were going to extract their own information. Either way, the Alliance didn't care. The other four were taken by the Allies.

Everyone was loaded up and on the road. They'd set up a fly-through in the desert, forty kilometers from the extraction point. Ben, the vehicles and half the Blue Squadron were staying. There was one last spot of housekeeping before they left and they'd promised the Yateem they could keep the cars. Kay watched as their men pulled off the highway and into the darkness.

"ETA to pick up sixty minutes," Kay said.

"Hey, Connix," Ben said.

"Yeah?"

"He's coming home."

Only redeeming quality. She smiled. "Thanks."

 

* * *

 

The elevator up to the tarmac was empty when Rey stepped onto it. She checked her tablet again. The tower had cleared Poe's flight for a landing run when she left her desk. It would be touching down any minute. Kay had been up there since their first contact on approach. Ben was being monitored by a Tier Two at Lando's Jedah base. For as long as an Agent was in the field someone had to be on call. The problem was the alert that popped on her screen. Despite having babysitters assigned to him, Ben kept bothering her.

She pressed the button on her earpiece. "Go for Johnson."

"Good afternoon," Ben said pleasantly. "I wanted to go over the mission brief one more time with you and Connix before Poe arrives. At that point she'll be checked out and I need her—"

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news…"

He exhaled sharply, sounding tired. His vitals certainly backed the theory up. From what she could tell, his vitals were always way outside normal parameters. It was strange that they let him go into the field that way. He was going to get himself killed.

"When does he arrive?"

"He's arriving as we speak." The elevator doors opened and Rey stepped out onto the tarmac.

The plane was taxiing into position. Kay's golden crown and blue sheath dress stood out like a beacon amongst the clutch of runway workers in their orange jumpsuits and white helmets.

"Ah, I hear engines."

"Then at least your ears are still working," Rey said, approaching the cluster of onlookers.

"As opposed to the rest of me, which is completely screwed?"

She faltered, nearly stopping in her tracks. It was unnerving that she'd just been thinking that and he'd somehow plucked it straight out of her brain.

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Probably more than once. You're wondering why my mother clears for me duty. Why anyone would let me near an active operation." His voice dropped to a teasing bass. "I'm a liability."

Rey needed to regain control of the conversation. "Is it a death wish? Maybe you want to die a hero? Go out in a blaze of glory?"

She stepped into the group and Kay's brow pinched. Rey turned her tablet around so Kay could see the active call. Kay rolled her eyes.

Ben was chuckling in her ear. "I'm no hero, Johnson."

Rey frowned. There was that bitterness again. It was the most honest emotion he projected. The only truth he gave away. Poe Dameron, for all that he was a great spy, wore his heart on his sleeve. He was kind. He smiled often. Wanted to help. Gave so much of himself. Poe was an open book.

Ben Solo always seemed to be lying. To his mother, to Amilyn, to everyone in the Pit, perhaps even to himself. There was a dark heart in there somewhere. A bitter pill that just wouldn't go down and she was beginning to think that the many masks he wore were meant to obscure that. She reached for her pendant, thinking of her own past and found that it wasn't alone – she was still wearing Ben's ring around her neck.

The crew around her scattered, scurrying across the blacktop, shouting orders.

"He's arrived," Ben said.

"Yes."

"Tell me how he looks."

"I'm sorry?"

"Visual inspection. Didn't they teach you how to do that in boot camp?"

"Of course they did."

"Then tell me how he looks, Johnson."

Rey followed Kay toward the aircraft. It was a small, private passenger plane. Max capacity 10. Corvette series. Made by Kuat to withstand the turbulence around the island that prevented people from turning their slice of paradise into a tourist trap. The cabin door dropped and Poe was the first one out.

There was a tension in the set of Poe's shoulders. Lines around his eyes and deep bags under them. They'd sent him through Jedah first, where he must have showered and changed. His curly hair was blowing wildly in the wind. His eyes looked haunted.

Kay took off at a run, leaping into his arms before he cleared the bottom step. Like a magic trick the tension melted away. He closed his eyes and smiled, pulling Kay against him.

"He's alright," Rey said quietly. "Worse for wear, but he'll be alright."

Ben let out a long, low breath. "Good. Thank you, Johnson."

The line went dead in her ear and Rey realized he'd been genuinely worried about Poe. Ben Solo might have a dark heart, but there was still a heart in there somewhere.

 

* * *

 

Poe ran his fingers up Kay's bare arm. Through the open bedroom door he could see the dim halo of light from the kitchen below, reminding him of the way snippets of sunlight would filter down the hall, offering the only illumination into his cell. He tried to shake the thoughts away but they clung to him. A part of him was still in that cell.

"Poe?" Kay's voice was husky from sleep. She stirred against him, hand sliding across his chest to his cheek. "Where are you right now?"

"Zoresht."

"Oh, honey." She kissed his cheek gently. "I'll schedule an appointment with Dr. K. You need to talk to her."

He pulled her tighter to him, burying his face in her hair and breathing her in. It wouldn't chase away the stench of imprisonment, but it was a comforting scent. Familiar. Happy. Home.

"You're probably right," he whispered. "When's your op?"

She checked her watch. "Four hours."

"Four hours. We can do a lot in four hours."

She chuckled. "I need to sleep. Ben brought you back to me. The least I can do is be well rested."

"Right again." He kissed her forehead. "I'm glad he's the biggest idiot in the world."

She kissed his chest. "Me too. No one wants to wake up in the middle of the night that way."

Poe nodded, thoughts drifting off again.

He'd spent two weeks waking to the sound of screaming. Couldn't imagine what that must have been like for Kay, or Temmin, or Karé. Least of all for Ben. He thought of how unprepared they must have been. How haunting it was for Poe and he'd been trained for it. It sure as hell did a number on George.

As his mind was wont to do, it wandered back to the journalist in the cell across from his. When they were moved, they were hooded. Poe hadn't heard George's cell door open. Hadn't recognized his voice on the drive south from Tehran. By the time Poe woke up he was already on a plane home with the Blue Squadron. He'd checked the roster of inmates brought back from Zoresht. George's name wasn't on it, which meant he was still in there and there was nothing Poe could do to help him now.

He thought instead of George's son. He could still help the boy. Maybe one day, tell him the truth. His story hit closer to home than Poe cared to admit. He could do that. He could find George Carver's son. Make sure that boy wanted for nothing. He could and he would.

"Come back to me," Kay said.

Poe squeezed her as tight as he dared. "I'm here Kay-Co. I'm right here."

 

* * *

 

"Shit," Rey breathed.

There'd been a bomb set off at a nightclub a few blocks from Ben's hotel. Playing the tourist, he'd stayed in a ritzy hotel for western travelers. The clubs were juicy targets for Islamic zealots looking to make a statement about the dangers of western influence. Because dubstep was a huge threat to their way of life.

She glanced at Ben's vitals. It was strange watching his biometrics while he slept. She kept a careful eye out for any changes the noise might have brought on and not a moment too soon. His heart rate spiked and she activated Ben's comm line.

The god awful scream coming through the headset was enough to make her blood run cold. She hit the auto dialer and didn't bother to wait for him to pick-up before switching to police scanners. The screaming subsided into incoherent noises. He sounded like he was in pain. His vitals were all over the place. The call went to voicemail.

"Shit," she said again, hitting the redial.

"Hullo?" Ben said in her ear, voice thick with sleep.

"We have a problem. There was a bombing a few blocks out. I think it triggered an episode. Someone called the police. Comms already open."

"Fuck," he breathed. "Switching now." The line went dead, but he spoke again a moment later. "How much time do I have?"

"Two minutes."

She heard him grunt. "Going out the back."

"Go out the front. Walk up the causeway. There's a club four blocks northeast."

"I have my gear."

"I figured, but if anyone stops you just tell them you're going to Varzdar." She mapped out a route as she spoke. "I'll direct you when you get close."

"You'll direct me now," Ben seethed, affecting his accent again.

"You shouldn't talk to yourself."

"We're on the phone, luv."

He was telling her he'd put his phone to his ear, covering the earpiece so it would look like a conversation. She wished he had his optics in but there hadn't been time. CCTV would have to do.

"Fine. When you reach the club there's a side entrance for VIPs. No one will look twice if you go toward it. Keep going another six blocks west. There's an apartment building. Half the units are empty. You should be able to lay low there until the meeting."

Ben made idle conversation as he walked to the club, asking veiled questions to which she responded with intel about the situation at the other club. The police arrived at his hotel room to find it vacant, but all his possessions still in place. All except the guns and tech that would have given him away. A block away from Varzdar, an officer stopped him and Ben went through the motions of being a tourist. The officer let him go.

"Good call on the disco, luv. It looks banging."

"You're welcome," Rey said.

He was just passing around the north side of the building, toward the side entrance, when Rey got another alert.

"Damn it," she breathed. "They've put a BOLO out. The officer who stopped you is going to see it any minute."

Ben's vitals jumped, his O2 levels and heart rate increasing. She knew he wouldn't run. That would arouse suspicion but he was definitely walking faster. He took on an agitated approach to their conversation to mask his speed walking. She helped him along with a few choice insults. When else would she get the free shots? His GPS signal was a block out from the apartment complex and she could see him from the camera down the road.

"There's a brick building across the street on your left. Do you see it?"

"Aye, luv. I do."

"There's a keypad on the door. Use access code four seven four nine three six."

"How bloody hard is it to confirm one shareholder meeting?" he replied.

She watched through the camera as he punched in the code.

"Seventh floor. Far end of the hall. Last one on your right. You can see down both streets and its closest to the stairwell. That will take you up to the roof if you need it. The lock is nothing fancy, but there should be bar you can put on the door once you're inside."

"And should I be thanking you for that?" he spat.

"As a matter of fact you should," she replied.

"Look, I've gotta go. Thank you for giving me grey hairs."

"Always happy to be of service."

"Piss off."

She waited in silence as he picked the lock, heard him suck in a breath.

"I'm in. Setting the bar," he said, resuming his normal voice. "Did you really have to call me a cocksucker?"

"I was getting into character," she replied. "And you're clear. No hits on the BOLO yet. We got lucky."

"Still have an eye on our go-between?"

"Of course I do. He's at home. More than likely beating his second wife."

"Second?"

"He beat the first one to death, which apparently was his right to do as he walked away without charges."

"What'd she do? Fail to cook him dinner?"

"Fail to give him sons."

"Jesus," Ben choked.

"No, Allah."

Ben snorted. "I thought my gallows humor was bad."

"In that world, you learn to laugh or you live in abject terror."

"And I'm assuming you didn't survive living in fear."

"There was a healthy amount of it." She did a final check and when she was as certain as she could be that they were clear, she sat back in her chair. "We're under three hours to your meeting. There's a bed in there. I recommend getting a couple hours of sleep."

"No. This night has gone wrong once. I'm in a strange environment with a BOLO out. I'll wait until it's done."

"Fine. Then get settled, you're going to be there awhile. Johnson out."


	6. Chapter 6

There was more than an hour's wait before Kay would arrive. Two to the handoff. Ben was playing games on his phone. Everything was quiet. Rey prayed it stayed that way until Kay arrived. She noticed Ben's heart rate dropping, his breathing slowing down. He was falling asleep. That tended to happen when you hit exhaustion.

All at once his vitals spiked again. Then the call came in.

"You know, your body is trying to tell you something."

Ben chuckled. "And I'm ignoring it. As my babysitter, it's your job to keep me alive until Kay gets there. So now you're going to talk to me, keep me awake."

"Joy."

"Is this walk down memory lane making you irritable?"

"I rather thought that was obvious. You make everyone irritable with your winning personality."

He dropped his voice. "That mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble."

The deep base notes rattled in her ear and she remembered the way he'd lorded over her in the hall outside R&D. The intensity of his gaze. He was trying to get under her skin and she hated to admit that it was working.

"I thought you liked my mouth?"

"Now you're just teasing me, Johnson."

There was no good path to go down in this conversation. Every possible response was leverage he could use to throw another salvo her way. She wasn't going to give him another crack.

"What happened back at the hotel? You were screaming bloody murder."

"Heard that, did you?" He said it as though it hadn't sounded like he was being tortured.

"You sounded like you were in pain."

"Do this job long enough and nightmares are inevitable. Pray you never end up with mine."

"What the hell could possibly make you scream like that in your sleep? You didn't even wake up."

"Way above your clearance. Sorry, Johnson."

"Understood."

"Again, I pray you never do," He chuckled.

"If you're going stay awake then at least put in your optics."

"Right this second?" He asked, a hint of mischief back in his voice.

"Yes."

"I'm taking a piss. You still wanna see?"

"For the love—" She leaned back in her chair. "It's going to be a long night."

At least he'd been kind enough to wait until afterward to put the contacts in, lending credence to her suspicion that he was just yanking her chain. What he got out of it she didn't want to know.

"Getting my lenses out now. What is this place? It wasn't in the prep kit."

"Old bolt hole of mine. I confirmed with an outside source it was still available."

"Do the Yateem know about this place?"

"I'm not an idiot," Rey sighed. "Plutt doesn't know about it either. You can't stay more than a night. The landlord keeps it empty for his mistresses, but it means a bed and roof. As long as I was out by sun up, I was safe."

"How'd you know he wouldn't be in tonight?"

"Because he's at another property tonight, with another mistress."

Ben chuckled. "You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Surprising me."

"I swear to god, if you say, 'I like that in a woman', I will send your location to the police and let Leia deal with you."

"My life is in your hands."

"You'd do well to remember that."

"Optics are in."

Rey bent over her keyboard and activated the feed. She'd watched agents and their handlers go through the initial checks often enough to have memorized them.

"Blink once." Ben did. "Blink twice." He did. "Activating HUD."

He snorted at the words she'd sent him to read. "I'm an arsehole, but at least I follow directions."

"That you do." She smiled at herself. "True north."

He turned toward the north compass point. "North locked. Confirm."

"True north confirmed." She set a tracking point. "Tracker one activated."

He scanned the room, following the blinking icon that pointed him toward the target indicator. "Target locked. Confirm."

"Target one confirmed." She sighed. "Optics performing normally."

"Confirmed," Ben chuckled.

"Something funny?"

"Wexley still doesn't know how to do that without a cheat sheet. You've never even been trained."

"It's not as though it's rocket science. You'd have to be an idiot not to—" Motion on the second screen drew her attention away. "No," she whispered. "No, no, no, no, no."

"Talk to me, Johnson."

"Patching through. Emergency call from the go-between's house."

They listened as the emergency call picked up mid-stream to a woman screaming erratically on the line. _"… killed my husband. Please, please, god have mercy."_

A man responded. _"Be calm. We have sent officers to your location. Are you alone?"_

 _"No!"_ she screamed. They heard the sounds of a scuffle. A shot went off. The woman could still be heard in the background weeping and cursing god.

"What's happening?" Ben asked.

  
"Working on it. One man is running. Down the block. He has our package."

"Consider this your field promotion. Watch him. I'm going to find a car."

"Check the kitchen. Small drawer to the left of the sink. Look for an Oldsmobile logo."

"You are my angel of death," Ben breathed.

"Work now. Flirt later. Red sedan parked on the street. Tracker one in forty seconds."

"Call Amilyn. Get her to clear you for Tier Three."

Rey didn't hesitate, watching as he leapt the railings down the seven floors and burst through the stairwell exit door onto the street, the call ringing in both their ears.

Amilyn picked up on the third ring. "CNS?" she said groggily.

"It's Johnson. I need to be cleared for Tier Three. We have a situation."

"I just gave her a field promotion," Ben added.

"Tracker one activated. Head east. Avoid the causeway," Rey said.

"Shit," Amilyn breathed. "Sit Rep."

"Our contact was neutralized within the last five minutes. His wife initiated an emergency call. I have a single male, on foot, leaving the house with our package."

"Target one. Confirm." Ben cut in.

Rey scanned the screen making sure the GPS tracker on the target was properly syncing to the one on Ben's HUD.

"Target one confirmed," Rey replied. An install window popped up on her screen. The load bar raced quickly across the window before it disappeared.

"You've been upgraded to Tier Three. I'm calling Kay in."

"Don't bother," Ben spat. "I'm not swapping midstream. Johnson will take care of me, won't you?"

"Focus," Rey snapped.

"I'm completely focused," he said, in the tone of a man who was anything but.

"You sound like your father," Amilyn chuckled.

"Target is heading west on an intercept course—" Rey began.

"I see it," Ben said mildly.

"I'll skip Kay, but I'm waking Leia," Amilyn cut in. "Over and out."

"Great," Ben grumbled. "I have a job for you, Johnson. Keep my mother off my ass."

"This sounds like a family issue I don't want to get in the middle of."

"That's your job as my handler."

"I'm not your bloody handler."

"You are tonight," he chuckled. "My life really is in your hands now."

"This sounds like a terrible idea," she snorted.

"It could be worse. You could be Wexley."

"God forbid. He's turned north again. Fuck, Plutt has a warehouse a mile north of his location. At his current pace you'll intercept him a few blocks shy, but you don't want to get that close."

She watched as his eyes dipped to the speedometer and the engine revved. "Cops?"

"Direct route's clear. Three in your vicinity."

"Look at your tools," Ben said. "You should have an option for false chatter now."

"I see it."

"Do you know how to—"

"Done. Two on the move. One holding his position. He's at the next intersection on your left."

Ben let off the accelerator and coasted through the intersection. Rey watched the police car light up anyway.

"Shit," they both said in tandem.

"Turn right up ahead," Rey barked.

"I'll lose the target."

"You have to trust me." She was working furiously at her terminal. They were already inside the police system. She just needed to make a small tweak.

"I might if I knew what you were doing."

 _"All cars. Murder suspect sighted fleeing on foot,"_ Rey said in Farsi. _"Heading north on Nafisi Street, approaching Hannani Blvd. Suspect is armed and dangerous."_

In the corner of the screen displaying the view from Ben's eyes, she watched as he banked the next corner and peeled out onto a side street.

"Good plan."

"Sirens will divert him away from Plutt's. He should double back towards a safehouse near your location. Take your second left and go five blocks. Park anywhere along the street."

"Can I get a tracker—" A second dot appeared in his HUD before he could finish the sentence. "Target two confirm."

"Two confirmed." She clapped. "Yes! We got him. He's running."

"ETA?"

"Waiting for pace."

"Approaching target two."

"ETA five minutes. Camp on the roof. Stair access on the south side of the building. Mag lock."

"Can you hack it?"

"Closed loop. I'll need to you jack into the keypad with your phone."

She watched him park down the street from the building and trot over to the south side door. He pulled the short cable from the edge of the phone case and plugged it into the port on the bottom of the keypad. Rey ran the decryption software, saying a small prayer of thanks to Allah that she'd gone over the Tier Three suite of tools after the rescue op.

She checked CCTV cameras while they waited, searching for her target. She had to switch to new feeds. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the door slide free. Ben pulled it open before unplugging his phone. She caught sight of her target. He'd lost the police, but they would be on him again soon enough. She tuned into the police chatter. They were closing in. She needed to send them away again.

 _"I see him. He's going north on Falsafi,_ " she said on the police line.

Several of them cursed this new information. She watched them all turn around. Through GPS and CCTV she tracked the police vehicles moving away as her target continued south two blocks over.

"Remind me to tell my mother to give you a promotion," Ben said.

"I'll hold you to that," Rey chuckled. "Two minutes. He'll be in unit 501. Head to the roof and wait for my signal. The fire escape will give you access to the apartment. I can't tell if it's occupied."

"We have thermal scanners. Satellite based."

Rey perused the satellite interface and found the thermal imaging. It took a few seconds to realign. Thankfully she'd already coopted it for targeting. It had been following their murderer. Ben would lose tracker one, but he'd gain intel on what he was walking into.

"I see you found it," he whispered.

"He's crossing the street to you now. Stay low. It looks like the unit is empty, but I'm not familiar with this interface. There are heat signatures coming from the other apartments and two from the general vicinity of 501 but I'm not sure if they're his unit or the one below it."

"Follow his thermals into the building. If they move toward him when he enters—"

"Then I'll know they're in the same unit." It stood to reason. "Are you in position?"

"Locked and loaded."

"I'll let you know when he enters." On a hunch, she checked cell towers in the area, specifying a list of numbers connected to Plutt. She got a hit and intercepted the call. "Patching through. I think he's on the phone with Plutt." They picked up the conversation mid-stream.

_"… but is it secure?"_

Rey's blood curdled in her veins. It had been a long time since she'd heard the sound of Unkar Plutt's voice.

_"I have it with me now, but I had to run from the police."_

_"You were seen?"_ Plutt seethed.

_"No! I swear it."_

Rey watched as the heat signature moved into one of the units. The two other signatures in that square of space remained still.

_"Stay where you are. I'll send someone to get you."_

_"God is good. Thank you, Unkar."_

The line went dead.

"It will take them less than ten minutes to reach you. He's alone. Go."

She busied herself resetting her CCTV watch list to track any movement along multiple routes from Plutt's warehouse down to the apartment where their target was hiding. She kept one eye on Ben as he slid silently down the fire escape and peered through a window. The target was lying down on a tatty looking sofa, eyes closed, no notion of what was coming for him.

His eyes scanned every inch of the room he could see before checking the locking mechanisms on the window. Rey smiled as he reached down and slid the window up just far enough to fit the barrel of his firearm. He took aim. She heard the steady exhale. Watched his vitals slow.

The target's phone rang as Ben squeezed the trigger. He didn't wait to see if his shot hit, throwing the window open. The man stood, dropping his phone on the floor, a surprised grunt escaping his lips at the appearance of an unknown assailant. The target threw a wild haymaker. Ben dodged easily, getting behind the target and putting an arm around his throat.

The target smacked his arm several times, reached up behind him for Ben's head. Rey couldn't see his other hand. Ben noticed it too, pulling away before the knife made contact with his side. It was enough time for the target to duck into the only bedroom and bar the door.

"He can't get out that way," Rey said immediately. "No movement at Plutt's."

Ben dipped down to put the sofa between him and the door. He leaned around the edge of the sofa, aimed low and fired several shots across the bottom of the door and either side of the wall. He heard a loud wail when he hit his target, quickly swapping the magazine for a fresh one as he got to his feet. With a running start, he slammed hard into the door. It only gave an inch. He shoved again and hesitated.

"Fuck." Ben dove back behind the sofa as a hail of bullets rent the air where he'd just been standing.

Automatic rifle fire would wake the other residents and the police were already in the area. She turned her attention to the police chatter while Ben crawled quickly toward the kitchen. He rolled in and crouched against the wall, a corner the only thing between him and the bedroom door. Rey glanced back at the CCTV cameras to find Plutt's people on the move. She'd gotten distracted.

"Company in seven."

There were no police calls yet but she kept an ear open as she checked in on Ben. He was looking into a small mirror angled around the corner. Nothing happened. A minute went by.

"Six minutes. Police calls going out now."

Another minute passed in tense silence.

"Plutt in five. Police ETA three."

Ben poked his firearm around the corner, then his body. He slid along the wall until he reached the bedroom door and listened. Rey remembered then that she could turn off the noise baffling on his end and she'd be able to hear what was going on around him. What she heard when she did nearly made her wish she hadn't. There was muttering coming from inside. It quickly resolved into prayer. The target was praying.

Ben took a deep, steadying breath and shouldered the door open, training his weapon on the single voice in the room. The man did not stand. He didn't move at all, his empty rifle discarded on one side, the knife and box on the other. He rocked gently on his knees though his prayers had ceased.

"I know your face," the man whispered.

"How do you know my face?" Ben asked. It made Rey's teeth itch to hear him butcher the language, but it was passable enough to be understood.

"From many years ago. I know you are death. I know your name."

"Stop," Ben commanded, resting the barrel on the man's forehead.

The rocking and praying resumed.

"Police ETA two minutes," Rey added, quietly. Something in the tone of the room had changed and she wasn't sure what.

Ben stood over the man, gun trained, and in the cleanest Farsi Rey had heard, he began the prayer of the dead. _"O my God! This is Thy servant and the son of Thy servant who hath believed in Thee and in Thy signs, and set his face towards Thee, wholly detached from all except Thee. Thou art, verily, of those who show mercy, the most merciful."_

The man looked up then, tears of exultation in his eyes. He whispered 'god is great' over and over again as Ben finished the prayer.

 _"Thank you,"_ the man said.

Ben shot him in the head. He fell back, a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"You have one minute to get the hell out of there," Rey breathed, sirens already drawing closer.

Ben scooped up the palm sized box and ran to the window. He'd left his duffle on the fire escape and hopped down over the railings, hitting the ground as the police vehicles came into sight. He ran west.

"Turn left on the next street and make your first right."

He complied without argument.

"At the traffic circle, make a left and stop running. The Bakery on the corner is open twenty four hours. Go in, get a coffee, then walk east on nineteenth. Head south on Bimeh until you see the Riahi Residential complex on your left. Steal a car. I'll make sure we have a pickup for you by the time you get there."

Ben reached the traffic circle and slowed to a walk, going the long way around until his breathing was under control. He pulled the door open to the coffee shop and in the reflection of the display cases she saw his wide smile.

A loud, slow clapping echoed through the Pit, drawing her attention away from her screen and to the audience behind her. Leia and Amilyn stood at the railing above, looking ruffled in their night clothes.

Rey turned back to her workstation, muting the channel to Ben. "Good morning, ladies. Mind coming down here so I can keep an eye on things?"

The police were just arriving at the apartment. Chatter didn't indicate they'd spotted Ben's hasty exit. Plutt's men diverted a block up and she watched them park. Ben ordered two coffees and two koloocheh cookies.

 _"My girlfriend loves these,"_ he said in his now perfect Farsi.

She wondered how long he would have let her go on correcting him before he dropped that bomb. She unmuted the channel. "Your handler loves gaz."

At the checkout, he slid a box of the nougaty sweets she'd mentioned toward the register. Rey tracked back to the CCTV feeds as Leia and Amilyn appeared in her periphery. She muted the channel again.

"We need a way out. He's got a BOLO on him. Hotel's compromised and—"

Leia held a hand up. "It's already done. Amilyn will forward you both the details."

Ben walked back out into the night, the first coffee cup drained before he'd left the shop. He'd taken it black, two sugars. Halfway down the block he ducked between two buildings, pulling off his coat and shirt and swapping them for a thermal and hoodie he had in his duffle. He shoved the box of gaz in with them and continued down the street, hood up around his head.

She unmuted the channel as he crossed the street on Bimeh. "You'll be there in a minute. All's quiet. Amilyn has sent us coordinates for your pickup. They're getting ready now."

Ben nodded, pulling out the first of his cookies. Rey pulled up Ben's food log and entered the coffee and two cookies into his spreadsheet. It was practically empty.

"Don't you track your food?" she asked.

He snorted in response, finishing his first cookie and starting in on his second.

"You're supposed to be tracking your intake," she chided. "What the hell was Temmin doing this whole time?"

"Trying to get into Connix's pants," Ben muttered.

Rey chuckled. Leia shook her head, reminding Rey that they were being watched. Ben glanced behind him as he approached the garage.

"I've got your six. Focus on getting a vehicle."

Ben glanced down at his hand. He was giving her the finger.

"Keep dreaming."

He snorted again. The building rose up on his right.

"Second door leads to the garage. Access code is eight one eight five pound."

Two minutes later, Ben was tossing his duffle across the driver's seat of a two year old Porsche. It would be a few hours before anyone noticed it was missing and he was far less likely to be stopped if he looked like a wealthy citizen on his way home from a club.

"ETA to extraction seventeen minutes. Confirm."

Rey double checked the traffic and speed limit calculations. "ETA confirmed. I'll be here if you need me." She muted the line and stood for the first time in what felt like days, stretching her sore muscles. "That was madness."

"You put on a hell of show," Amilyn said.

"How long have you two been here?"

"Since you pulled that stunt with the police scanners," Leia replied.

"The first time or the second?"

They exchanged an amused look.

"The first," Amilyn said.

Rey let her eyes sweep over her terminal again, cataloging each of her systems in turn. Police activity, clear. CCTV, clear. GPS, still tracking. Optics, functioning normally. She noted Plutt's men hovering at the edge of the crime scene, one of them on the phone. The tracer she'd run on Plutt's numbers was still active and it was recording the outgoing call from that tower. She dipped over her keyboard to bring it up, playing it through the speakers so they could hear.

_"… we don't know. Fardin is dead. No sign of the box."_

_"Wait for the police to leave and search the building. If Bellamy is hiding in there I want him brought to me."_

"Shit," Rey breathed.

_"And if he's gone?"_

_"Then we will kill him another day. I still owe him for what he stole the last time."_

_"Ghorbunet beram."_

Plutt didn't say goodbye. The line just went dead. Rey immediately unmuted the comm.

"What did you steal from Unkar Plutt?" She checked the timer. Twelve minutes.

"I didn't steal anything from him."

Leia chuckled, picking up a headset. "Hey, kiddo."

"The circus is in town. Hello, mommy."

"First Hamlet? Now Tinker Taylor? You're batting a thousand tonight, Solo," Rey said.

"Now where does a girl from the wrong side of the Aminabad pick up a copy of Tinker Taylor?"

"I'm full of surprises."

"If I could interject," Leia said. "The last time you were in Tehran you picked up a package that was difficult to get hold of."

"I remember," Ben said.

"So do I," Rey added.

"You came back and filed a report describing the situation in great detail. Another agent, having read the intelligence on the region, dropped a certain name while on assignment. Plutt got wind that we were asking about one of his best people and put a price on her head."

"You were right, Johnson. She already knew," Ben said.

Rey barely registered the jibe. Her hands were shaking. The months peeled away until she was back on the streets, the day she got wind that Plutt wanted her dead. She could still remember running for her life. Heading north to Chalus and handing over every penny she had for safe passage into Azerbaijan. The long, hungry trek through Armenia and into Georgia. She'd nearly frozen or starved to death on more than a dozen occasions. She gripped the back of her chair so hard her nail beds felt like they would rip free.

"When did you realize you'd done this to me?" she seethed.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught Leia and Amilyn exchange glances. She shut her eyes, pushing the anger down.

"Johnson?" Ben called, picking up on her tone.

"Shut up. When?" Rey ground out, her jaw aching from the tension in her muscles.

"Johnson, listen to me very carefully—"

She hung up on him. "When?"

"We knew within a few days," Leia said. "By then you'd already left Iran. We looked for you, Rey, but you are damn hard to find when you don't want to be found."

The comm line chirped in her ear. She checked the visuals. Nothing was wrong. He could wait.

"So you were looking for me?"

"Of course we were. Plutt thinks we recruited you," Leia replied.

"He knows where I am?"

"No. He doesn't really know who we are. Only that there is an organization, not affiliated with any government, running global clandestine operations. It's all anyone knows about us, if they know anything at all."

The phone began to ring as well and she saw Ben holding it against the steering wheel. She answered the comm.

"Control. Johnson."

"Do not hang up on me in the middle of an active op ever again!" he screamed.

"I'm not your handler," she seethed.

"You are until I get on that plane. Do you understand me?"

"Fuck off, Ben."

"What the hell is wrong with you? A week ago you were telling Nazreen how happy you are. Full fridge. Full bookshelf. Living your dream of flying. You spent three weeks on the run. Big fucking deal, Rey. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to you. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Trust me, she doesn't fucking forget."

Rey blinked several times, the words coursing through her veins like anti-venom, leaching out the toxins.

"Johnson?"

She scanned the station out of habit, her mind cataloging the details. Police scanners. CCTV. GPS. Optics. Biometrics.

"Johnson!"

"I'm here," she breathed.

"Tell me you're still with me."

"I'm still with you. Everything's clear. You're four minutes out," she said quietly, slipping into her seat. "Engines are warm. Pilot is ready. You're coming home."

"And you?"

Where was she? She'd just lost her cool, but Ben was right. Every horrible thing that had ever happened from the moment her parents died had led her to this place. To these people. She could be just another faceless zombie living, working and dying for someone else's dream. Instead, she was doing something important. Saving the world. Making a real difference where activists and politicians failed. Lesser men walked through life never knowing how big the world really was. Rey was flying.

"I'm already home."


	7. Chapter 7

Ben woke with a start. He could feel the subtle change in cabin pressure that indicated a loss of altitude. He was almost home. He sat up, stretching his stiff back. The jet was comfortable enough, but he was too tall to sleep in anything but a proper bed. He would be very glad when he was home. A giant pepper pot with rice, a glass of scotch, a few days of decompression and he'd be ready to fight with his mother again about handlers. She owed him.

He stared out the window as the plane circled the island where they lived. The ring of mountains looked like toys from up in the clouds. He could barely see the inlet where his parents had gotten married. He thought of Rey and her admission to Nazreen.

 _No, azizam. I'm flying_.

They passed into low cloud cover and the island disappeared, but Ben could still see it in his mind. Naboo. Home. The turbulence started a moment later and Ben buckled up. Special stabilizers in all their aircraft allowed them to travel to and from the island without crashing to their deaths. It was what made their little slice of heaven the perfect hideaway for their organization.

It was completely hidden from the world. The airspace was impassable, the coral reef structure prevented anything with a deep draught from docking, save for a single cove on the west side. During the Second World War, the isolation had completely destabilized the government. The island was deserted as everyone sailed off to Australia looking for work, food, and opportunity in a war torn world. Two decades later, after their home was destroyed by Palpatine, Bail and Breha Organa returned to build the Alliance.

They flew over the west side of the island. The mountains came into sharp relief and Ben could practically count the windows on the pod houses. He marveled at how lucky he was to have been born into this life as the plane hit the runway. Grabbing his bag, he made his way to the front of the compartment.

The second the plane stopped, he pushed the door open and found himself hesitating at the top of the stairs. In the two years Ben had been an Agent he'd gone on thirty-one missions. He'd disembarked from the flight home thirty-one times. Never in that two year period had anyone been waiting for him on the tarmac. Yet there she was. Stock still. Her blouse and hair whipping in the chaos from the turbines. That same defiant look on her face.

Ben snorted as he descended the steps. At some point he should probably get used to Rey surprising him. Maybe he should stop underestimating her.

Her defiance began to soften as he approached, the ghost of a smile curling along her lips. "Welcome home, Agent."

"Good to be home. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You have something for me."

He approached her from the side, dipping his head toward her ear. "Do I?" he asked, and kept walking.

She followed. "I believe there's a box of sweets in your duffle."

"There is."

"And are you going to give it to me?"

They reached the elevator. She had her tablet in one hand and a to-go cup of coffee in the other. She handed him the coffee and pushed the button.

"Who said I bought it for you?"

"I do."

"You must think very highly of yourself." He smiled brightly and took a sip of her coffee. It was sweet. Two sugars, sweet.

She smiled back just as brightly and stepped into the open elevator. "There's also this." She pulled the chain from around her neck, the Faravahar pendant swinging free.

"Have you been wearing that the whole time?"

"You told me to keep it safe for you. It hasn't left my person." She held the ring out to him. When he reached for it, she pulled it back. "My gaz?"

Ben smiled, shaking his head in disbelief. "That ring is worth a hundred thousand boxes of gaz."

"Not to me."

He dumped his duffle on the floor and fished out the box of Persian confections. "For you."

"Thank you!" There was a look of utter glee on her face as she took it. She eyed the black ring in her palm. He could see the curiosity flitting around behind her eyes but she offered it to him, questions unasked.

Ben took his ring back, sliding it onto his left index finger. It was cold against his skin. He was home.

 

* * *

 

The mission had been a success. Leia stared at the recently wiped cell phone on her desk. It was a lot of effort for a three year old iPhone, but that was the nature of the game.

The conference room was fuller than normal. Usually their meetings were small. Operations remained need-to-know. The fewer people who saw all the moving parts, the better. There was a whole crew complement today. Lando and his tech leads were on the screen, remoting in from Jedah. Antoc Merrick and his second, Jaldine Gerams, representing Blue Squadron. Paige Tico was personally overseeing the decryption of the files. Poe and Kay. Ben. Rey. It was a full house and none of them had the slightest idea what was really going on.

Amilyn touched her shoulder. "I need to get the ball rolling."

Leia cleared her throat. "If we could take this little love-fest outside, I need the room."

The rabble began to spill into the hallway as Amilyn said her goodbyes to the callers.

"Solo, Johnson, you stay." Leia nodded to her old friend and Amilyn wandered out too, eliciting a cocked eyebrow from her son. When the room was clear, she continued. "Talk about making the best out of a shit situation," Leia chuckled. "You did good."

Ben nodded at her.

Rey actually said the words, 'thank you,' before turning to Ben. "It is my obligation to remind you that you said something about recommending me for promotion."

"Fire her. Quickly, before she gets any more bright ideas."

"Too late, kid. I heard that part." Leia pointed at the screen behind her. "I can play it back for you if you like."

"Hoisted with his own petard," Rey chuckled.

Leia laughed. These two were something else. "As it turns out, I have a promotion in mind for Johnson. One she's ideally suited for."

The smile on Ben's face melted. She watched that brilliant mind of his finally work out what she'd been angling towards since she sent him out.

"That's what this was about." It wasn't a question.

Leia nodded.

"No," he snapped.

"What am I missing?" Rey asked.

"This whole thing was a test run. She has two highly valuable resources. One a problem and one a solution."

Leia watched Rey's equally brilliant mind follow the path to the same conclusion, her eyes growing wider with each passing second.

"Hear me out. Everyone here wants something. My son wants a handler so that he can stay in field work. Caluan Ematt wants to retire to a comfy desk job but he's still got irons in the fire. It'll be at least four months before we can safely transition all his assignments. Six, tops."

She knew Ben was already processing the information. Ematt was old school, a holdout from their days against the Empire. He knew everything there was to know about field work and Ben would trust him implicitly. Ematt was also calm, logical, and methodical, with a sense of humor dryer than the Sahara. All things Ben needed in a handler. They'd worked together before. It was probably the best match Leia could make for Ben.

"You wanted more time. I said I'd consider it if you succeeded. This is me giving you four to six months to find someone else. If you can't, Ematt will be a good match."

She turned her attention to Rey. "And you want to be an Agent. I know you had your heart set on Relay and you'd be wiping the floor with everyone inside a month, but I desperately need you on this. You've been in the building less than two months, took a situation even a hardened veteran would have fumbled and handled it like you were born to it. And you did it with the most ornery Agent we have. You didn't just manage the situation, you managed him."

Ben snorted.  "Standing right here."

Leia ignored him. She had one more carrot to dangle and this was for both of them.

"If you do this for me, I can offer you something in exchange. A fast track to a field commission. Stay with Ben. Watch him. Learn from him. He's one of our best. At the end of this you'll be more than ready. I'll let you test in early. Any job you want, it'll be yours. Of course, if you really do go for Agent, then I'll be stuck trying to find a handler who can keep up with you, so really, I'm just robbing Peter to pay Paul." She shrugged. "You take the little wins."

And then she waited. She knew Rey was weighing her options. Trying to decide if side-lining her career plans was worth the fast-pass at the end. Standing between her and the finish line was a six-foot-two pain in the ass and, though they'd gotten on well so far, Rey had to be smart enough to know he'd get under her skin the longer they worked together.

Ben, on the other hand, was running a wholly different set of cognitive queries. He wouldn't bother looking for a replacement. Ematt had the right background and experience so there was no reason to look further. That much was obvious. Rey was intriguing to him. Leia caught that much from the handful of interactions she'd witnessed. Few people could keep up with him and the digs about managing him were only half joking.

When looked at objectively, Rey checked off most of his boxes. He didn't want to take her away from field work anymore than Leia did. They both saw the massive potential in her. This was a good middle ground for him. Moreover, he could teach her, and what no one bothered to notice about Ben was that he really enjoyed sharing his knowledge. He was just a condescending asshole about it most of the time, which kind of defeated the purpose.

"What if I say no?" Rey asked.

Leia sighed.

"Remember what I said about biting the hand that feeds?" Ben warned.

Rey pressed on, undeterred by the warning. "What will you do if I say no?"

"Nothing," Leia replied, watching as Rey pondered the myriad implications of a single word.

"She means she will literally do nothing for you," Ben clarified. "You'll sit in Tier One for a long time. When it becomes obvious that you're getting restless, she'll move you into a new role. It won't be where you want to go, but it will be something that will hold your interest and more than likely make you a better Agent. Worthwhile enough that you'll justify to yourself why you should stick with it. You'll get restless again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Eventually, because she knows damn well how good you'll be at it, she'll let you take the exam for field work."

"When would that be?" Rey seethed.

"When she stops being bitter about it," Ben snorted. "That could take a while. Let me save you the trouble of pissing her off. I say no."

"I'll do it."

"What?" Ben turned to her, genuine surprise on his face.

It was so rare someone else got to surprise him that Leia took a moment to appreciate it. Her son had long since divorced himself from genuine emotions. It had been a messy divorce. It was refreshing to see the old ball and chain once in a while. That Rey could pull it out of him only strengthened Leia's resolve.

"Excellent. Poe's asked for a leave of absence. You'll be picking up a few of his cases. That should give you two a chance to get settled into things. Amilyn's already prepped a move team. They'll be in tomorrow to take Rey's things up to the house." Leia smiled brightly at them. "I have a good feeling about this."

 

* * *

 

The funeral procession cleared in ones and twos, bodies clad in black peeling off into cars, sedans and SUVs. For a man with no family, George Carver was well loved. He would be well remembered. Once the grave was clear and the groundsmen got to work, Poe moved closer. He knew the casket was empty. They'd never recovered Carver's body.

"Excuse me."

Poe turned to a teenage girl standing behind him. He recognized her dark blue and yellow coat from among the mourners. "Have you seen a cell phone? I think I left mine here."

"I haven't. Maybe they'll have it in the office?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, can you call?"

"Oh." Poe chuckled. "Sorry. I don't work here."

She tracked from the man at the head of the grave, to the hole in the earth and back again. "Did you know my uncle?"

Red flags immediately went up. "You're George's niece?"

"Yeah, his sister's daughter. How'd you know him?"

"We met a few years ago. Work."

"You a journalist or something?"

"Or something." Poe smiled.

An older woman called up from the road. "Did you find it?"

"No, momma!" the girl hollered back.

"Did you ask if he knew where it was?"

She clicked her teeth. "He don't work here, momma. He's a friend of uncle George's."

"Well, give him the address and get your ass back down here. We gotta go."

The girl smiled. "Do you wanna come to the house? My granny's making lunch for everybody."

"Thank you, but I have a flight this afternoon."

"Alright. It was nice meeting you, sir."

"You too."

Poe watched as the girl hopped back down the hill to her mother. Before he had time to consider the implications of what he'd just learned, another figure stepped up next to him. The man who'd spent two weeks in a cell across from Poe in Zoresht. The man who was obviously not George Carver. He waved down the hill at Carver's family. The girl's mother waved back without hesitation.

 _Well, ain't that about a bitch,_ Poe thought.

The man sighed deeply and bowed his head over Carver's open grave. Poe stared into the ground wondering what came next.

"So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?"

The man chuckled.

"It seems in poor taste to call you George, what with us standing over his grave and all. What should I call you?"

"It doesn't matter. My name isn't all that important. I've had about as many as you have over the years."

"Gotta call you something. Work with me here."

"The name my mother gave me was Gerald."

Poe extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Gerald. I'm Drew."

Gerald stared down at the hand, then back up to Poe's face. "There's no need for that Mr. Dameron. I'm being honest with you. I'd appreciate it if you would do the same."

Poe nodded and they lapsed back into silence. He knew he was dealing with a highly trained professional now. That much was clear. He needed to figure out what bearing, if any, Carver had on this situation and what the man standing next to him wanted.

"I met the real George Carver in Zoresht. He died three days before you arrived. He was in your cell. I liked you. You tried to work me right away. Keep me strong, hopeful. It was your approach that caught my attention though. Family. You care about people. I think you can help me."

"With what?"

"I'm a former Imperial." He glanced sideways at Poe. "Don't freak out. I don't work for them anymore. They fucked me up. Fucked me up real good."

"They did that to people."

"I know. They did it to you, to some of your friends. To your boss, worst of all."

"Look, Gerald, I don't know what you think you're talking about—"

"Save it. I was trained to know everything about your organization. After the Empire fell, I ran as far from you as I could. You hunted us like dogs. I knew how to stay off your radar."

"Then why step out now?"

"They're gaining strength again. Calling themselves the First Order. I don't know who the ringleader is. I'm just a lone wolf. You guys are well connected, organized, you have the manpower. Tell her. Tell the Princess they're coming."

"Give me a reason to trust you."

Gerald paused. "Do you know how they recruited Stormtroopers?"

"No," Poe admitted.

"They took children from their homes, from their families. They told us we were orphans. Unwanted. Discarded. That the Empire had given us a purpose. It was a lie." He nodded to the hole in the ground. "That man there, he was my older brother. I was taken from a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, when I was baby. My records said I died a few hours after my birth." He pointed to a headstone three plots over. "That one's me. Gerald Carver. My family doesn't know who I am. They think I work for the US government. I never got closure, but at least I could give them theirs."

"How does this make me trust you?"

"Tell your Princess what I told you. She knows. She'll confirm I'm telling the truth." Gerald reached for his belt and Poe tensed, eliciting a chuckle. He flicked a pocket knife open, cutting his thumb with it, leaving a fingerprint on the blade, then flipping it shut again. From his pocket he retrieved a handkerchief. He dabbed it against his thumb, rolled the knife into it and offered it to Poe.

"Everything you need to confirm my story. Just promise me you'll tell her."

Poe nodded. "I promise." He took the bundle, stuffing it into the inside pocket of his coat. "How'd you get out of Zoresht?"

"Your people got me out. I was in that van too. I knew what Zoresht was when I went in. When I realized you'd given them something useful I guessed what your organization might be up to. Figured if I could get myself into that convoy with you, I wouldn't have to trade real intelligence to get out." He sighed. "It worked."

"And the name you gave them?"

"Jonathan Anders. One of my aliases in Switzerland. When you're ready to get back in touch, you can contact me there."

Poe was a decent judge of character. Sure, he could be fooled. Everyone was human. But he had the sense that this story was the real story. He'd check it out for sure, vet everything thoroughly. The crazy thing was, Poe believed him.

"I will. " He offered his hand again. "It was good to meet you, Gerald Carver."

Gerald took his hand. "And you, Poe Dameron. Godspeed."

 

* * *

 

Leia stood at the edge of The Pit, as she so often did, surveying the comings and goings of her organization. Few people would see the tension in her hands as she gripped the railing. Amilyn could see it. She always knew when Leia was on edge.

"You ready?" Amilyn asked.

Leia glanced over her shoulder, nodding once. Amilyn gave back her warmest smile.

"Solo," Leia called.

Several heads turned at the sound of her voice. Rey pivoted at her new desk in Tier Three, Ben did not. He tapped Rey's shoulder, calling her attention back to the screen. With a few final instructions, he made his way up the aisle and into the gallery.

"Yes, mother?"

"It's time." Leia pivoted toward the conference room, disappearing into it.

"She seem tense to you?"

Ben loved to put on an air of unruffled impenetrability. It was the first mask he'd truly mastered. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't buying his bullshit. He kept his shoulders back and loose, hands thrust in his pockets, bored expression on his face. He was as nervous about the intel as Leia was about sharing it.

Amilyn sighed. "Come on, kiddo. Best to rip off the band aid." She ushered him into the conference room and initiated a lockdown. By the time she took her seat, they were sealed in.

"What's the story?" Ben asked.

Leia wasted no time. "Most of it's crap. Iran's secrets aren't nearly as exciting as they want to believe. Less than ten percent of the files were related to the Empire and we're pretty sure the Iranian's didn't know what they had on a few things."

"Such as?"

"They had a file on Chernobyl," Amilyn explained. "No hint that they knew what was really being built there or why the facility was sabotaged."

"Or that it was sabotage," Leia added.

Ben nodded. "So, what's the bad news? Stab in the dark, but you didn't bring me in here to tell me you found nothing."

"They had personnel rosters," Leia said.

Ben tensed right away, eyes flicking from Amilyn to his mother and back again.

"Mostly Stormtrooper records. Some technical teams. Of import, the ones who worked on project DS-1OBS."

Amilyn watched Ben carefully as he processed this information. "That shouldn't matter. Krennic's team are all dead."

Leia shook her head.

"They are," he insisted. "I know they are."

"One of them got out," Leia said.

"Who?"

"Galen Erso."

Ben leaned back in his seat, running his hand across his mouth. "How?"

"No clue," Leia admitted.

"You want me to go after him?"

Leia shook her head vigorously. "Hell, no. How could you even think that?" She stood, pacing across the front of the conference room. "I've put another asset on it. A tracker."

"Asset?" Ben leaned forward. "A rogue asset?"

Leia nodded.

"Who?"

"Andor."

"Shit," Ben whispered. He glanced at Amilyn.

In truth, she wasn't much happier about it either. Cassian Andor was damn good at his job. He would find Erso and do everything in his power to take the man into custody. If he couldn't, well, Galen Erso wouldn't be left in the wind, one way or another. The job had its ugly parts.

Ben sighed, realizing he'd dodged a bullet. "You're being awfully talkative about a job you didn't want me to take. What else?"

"There were more files on Sloane. Recent. Not connected to the Empire, but I'm not stupid enough to pretend it doesn't mean something. Especially not after what Poe told us."

"What did Poe tell you?"

"One of his cell mates, a man named Carver, was a former Imperial. He claims the Imperial Remnant is galvanizing. Thinks they have a new leader. They're calling themselves the First Order."

"Palpatine's contingency," Ben whispered.

Leia nodded. "We're looking into Carver's story. If it checks out, I'll fill you in, but I'm thinking it'll check out." She waved at Amilyn. "Please."

Amilyn pulled up her case files on the Hutt's financials for the last few years. "In the last year, several of the Hutt leaders have been funneling resources away from the Hutt-controlled bank, Nar Shaddaa, to a smaller one in Switzerland, RDR. Three months ago, the first of the Aarrpo family moved all their holdings. Anarcho, Orko, H'unn, Gorga. All moved their interests to RDR."

"The Aarrpo family is old blood," Ben said. "That had to piss off Jabba."

"It gets better. A few weeks later, Ziro and three of his brothers did the same. They were low men on the totem on pole, but as Jabba's cousins, it had a greater political impact than a financial one."

"It destabilized the Tiuere's unilateral hold on the cartel," Ben noted. "And Ziro's a major player in the Black Sun."

"Correct. The final move was made while we were focused on how to get Poe back. It happened right under our noses. Niima Amura pulled all her finances. No gradual transition. No preamble. At close of business, her money was sitting in Nar Shaddaa accounts. The following morning, it was with RDR."

"Sloane." Ben was seething.

Amilyn brought up the news reports, dated three days prior. "Niima's money was enough to buy out Nar Shaddaa. RDR is now the biggest criminal bank in the world and Sloane is its CEO."

Ben moved toward the screens, scanning the article. "You think this is the first move."

"Palpatine backed the Trade Federation and their banks in the lead up to the war. He stoked conflict between superpowers to hide what he was doing." Leia turned back to Amilyn. "The footage, please."

Amilyn called up the surveillance footage. They watched a blurry security feed of a bedroom. A man, covered head-to-toe in black, tore through four of Niima's highly trained bodyguards before cutting her throat in her bed. The man in black reached into Niima's mouth, straightened her bedding around her and exited through the window.

"This was thirty six hours ago," Amilyn explained. "Iranian police didn't find what the assailant left in Niima's mouth, but—"

"A slug," Ben whispered.

"Seventeen hours ago, three casinos on the Las Vegas strip were bombed," Leia continued as Amilyn pulled up the coverage.

"Let me guess, they belonged to Zorba Tiuere?"

"And the devices used in the bombing are consistent with explosives and methodologies used by the Black Sun," Leia said.

"Ziro," Ben said.

"Yes."

"They're going to war."

"Yes," Leia sighed. "And we're not going to get involved. This is the diversion. We need to focus on the real war. We need to investigate RDR. Where it came from. Who has accounts. How they make their money."

Ben shook his head. "This is still speculation. Just because Sloane is involved and some nutjob former Imperial name drops item one from Palpatine's post-bucket list doesn't mean we're at full-blown conspiracy."

"Show him the letterhead, Ams."

Amilyn pulled up a document they'd come across on the cell phone. "This is a form letter sent by RDR shortly after its founding. They used it to fish for legitimate clientele. They changed their name within the first year to an abbreviation." She zoomed in on the crest at the top of the page.

"Shit," Ben breathed.

"What'd my father always say?"

Ben turned slowly toward to his mother, face white as a sheet. "One's anomaly. Two's coincidence. Three's conspiracy."

Leia pointed at the screen. "That's three."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone who's commented, tweeted and tumblred with me along this journey, thank you so much for your support. Part 2 will (hopefully) be coming out in August. I'm actually going to be vacationing with family from July 31st through Aug 13th and won't be working on this project. I'm hoping to have Part 2 in beta before I leave and - fingers crossed - will be able to start posting shortly after my return. See you in then!


	8. PREVIEW

## The final chapter of _Part 2: Mistrust Goes Both Ways_ is now posted.

If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, please do. I will post 2 updates in this story when part 3 comes out: one for the first chapter and one for the last. You can remain subscribed to this story to get your updates going forward or subscribe on the series page to be notified when each story starts. Here's a snippet of Chapter 1...

* * *

Rey checked the surveillance feeds again. The server farm was quiet. Security wouldn't be back through for another half an hour. Everything was clear as Ben pulled the panel off the server.

"I'm in," Ben said in her ear.

She checked the view from his optics. He'd connected the secure transmitter to the server.

"Conder," Rey said. "You're up."

Conder Kyl's face appeared in the central column, bald head dipped over his keyboard as he worked. "I'm connected."

"Reset and go to marker two," Rey said. "I'll let you know when you're clear to retrieve the tech."

"Anything for you," Ben said in a near pornographic whisper.

A muted chuckle slithered through the lower tiers of the octagonal Pit. Rey rolled her eyes. His flirtations were getting more and more heavy handed. She was going to have to do something about it, she just hadn't figured out what.

A hand touched her shoulder, and she turned to smile up at Poe Dameron. "Don't let him get under your skin."

She muted her line. "Working on it."

"Might I suggest a change in tactics?" He winked.

"Such as?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "Give as good as you get."

She glanced back at the screen, a knot forming in her stomach at the thought of 'giving' in such a public place. She distracted herself with the work. Conder was three minutes into a twenty minute hack. Ben was creeping down a corridor of servers toward a vacant bathroom out in the hall. He'd ride out the hack there and go back for the tech when it was over. He reached the bathroom without incident, locked the door and sat with his back against it. He'd left the lights out just in case, so the room was relatively dark though his optics.

"So what should we do while we wait?" he whispered.

"You'll be quiet," she replied. "Lest someone hear you."

"Is anyone around?" he whispered.

Out of habit she glanced at each of the surveillance feeds in front of her. "All clear."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"Keeping you alive. That's my job, despite how difficult you make it."

"Awe, you do care."

"I'm paid to care."

"Still counts."

Rey rolled her eyes. She hated Ben most when he was on assignment. At home he wasn't quite so bad, but that attitude of his got bigger when he was away. Especially after the Hutts went to war. All their teams had been running nonstop for two months. It wasn't uncommon for an Agent to complete one mission and fly straight to the next without coming home. It wasn't supposed to be the norm, but had become so in the chaos.

"Come on, Rey. Tell me a story. Preferably a dirty one."

More chuckles from the peanut gallery. She glanced over her shoulder to the gallery. Sure enough, Leia was standing at the railing.

"Your mother's watching you know."

"My mother's always watching. If I let that stop me I'd never get laid. You know," he said, pitching his voice low, "now that you mention it, you're always watching."

Rey closed her eyes, feeling the defeat settle in.

If it were possible, his voice dropped another half octave. "Tell me, how does that make you feel? Watching me put my hands on all those beautiful women."

"All two of them?" she snapped.

"You're counting?"

"Would you shut up?" She checked the feeds. Still clear. She checked the progress of the hack. Halfway there.

"Or would you prefer if were with men? Does that do it for you, Rey?"

She ignored him. That was the only option left to her. She muted her line and double checked the escape route. It wasn't necessary. She and Ben had both checked it several times. It was solid. Ben continued to whisper indecencies in her ear. She tuned them out. Then she caught movement in the hall. Someone was heading his way.

"Ben, you've got incoming."

"So?"

"Be quiet, he'll hear you."

"Then answer the question."

"What question?"

"What are you wearing?"

* * *

Now click the Next work button below!!! Hope to see you in part 3!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm one of those writers that loves to talk to people directly so please feel free to reach out to me. You can shoot me an e-mail (available in my profile), send me a PM on Tumblr [@thoseindarkness](https://thoseindarkness.tumblr.com/), or gimme a shout on Twitter [@thoseindarkness](https://twitter.com/thoseindarkness).
> 
> Every author is different so I'm going to be explicit: 
> 
> **MY COMMENT SECTION IS OPEN FOR ANY AND ALL POSTERS**
> 
> You are free to post anything you like in the comments of this story. Point out my grammar and spelling mistakes, talk about areas of the prose that you didn't quite understand/weren't clear, give your personal opinions (positive or negative) about the story. Tell me what you loved. Tell me what you hated. If you felt the characters were OOC I want to know why. What made you uncomfortable? What made you scream at the top of your lungs? How hot did I make you? Give Amazon style reviews (yes, I said it). You can also PM if you don't feel comfortable posting publicly. My box is open (some pun intended).
> 
> I want you to say whatever you want. I'm the kind of writer that uses fan fiction as a method for expanding my skill. Your feedback is 24K gold to me no matter what kind. If you have something to say: SAY IT! You don't have to be afraid of hurting me. My skin is mythril, my bones are adamantium, and my heart is encased in unobtainium. Your words cannot hurt me, only make me stronger. I ask only that you not attack each other. I've painted the target on my own back. Please, don't miss.
> 
> BOMBS AWAY…


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